Chapter Three
The house was quiet and they had managed to clean up quite a few rooms, but by three o'clock they were feeling like they needed a break. Holly strolled down to the little shop on the corner and picked up a packet of dry biscuits, some cheese, a couple of apples and a bottle of milk, while Ivy looked around the kitchen for some crockery.
In the kitchen was a large Welsh dresser, she opened each of the top cupboards and they were bare. However, in one of the lower ones she found a couple of old glasses and several dinner plates. All she needed now was some cutlery, which she found straight away in the centre drawer.
Ivy was startled by the sound of a door shutting, "Is that you Holly?" she shouted. There was no reply. She was convinced there was someone or something in this house. "Maybe the house is haunted", she though to herself, though deep-down she was hoping this was not the case. Ghosts really scared the living daylights out of her.
A few moments later Holly arrived. "Did you find anything Ivy?" she asked. "Yes I did, come and see", replied Ivy. Then she quickly went on to tell Holly about the noise she had heard, but Holly, knowing full well how Ivy's mind works, was convinced she was imagining things. Of course the house had been vacated months ago, so it was possible someone could be squatting in the house. However, all the outer doors had been securely locked when they arrived and there were no signs of broken windows, so as far as Holly was concerned, it was simply out of the question.
When they had eaten, they began to polish all the wooden panelling and the occasional pieces of furniture that had been left behind. After spending the entire day cleaning, they were really tired by dinner time and as they planned to continue the next day, they decided to stay the night in the former Master's bedroom.
They made themselves some more dry bikkies and cheese, drank the remainder of the milk and headed upstairs. Once again, Ivy heard a door closing, but this time Holly heard it too. "We really should check it out, but honestly, I am just too darn tired and it's probably just the wind", Holly murmured sleepily as she flopped on top of the bed. Their good clothes slipped to the floor and Ivy lay down beside her. Not a minute had passed before they both drifted off to sleep.
Of course now that they were sleeping, Pocket could come out of hiding in the shadows and do whatever he pleased. His footsteps were light, so he was sure he could go wherever he wanted completely un-noticed. Providing of course he didn't slam any doors. He had been watching the girls all day from behind the walls, except for when he had to check to see the clock in the hall was still running on time. Then later on, when he went to make his own dinner. It was an advantage to be small, you could fit into very tight spaces and see quite clearly out of tiny wee holes in the panelling.
Pocket saw the clothes on the floor beside the bed and pulled them underneath the bed. Thinking that the room looked so much tidier, it never entered his head that the girls may not find them there. As we mentioned earlier, Tinker Imps are clever with their hands, but they can be somewhat daft about simple things like hanging up clothes.
He made his way down stairs to the kitchen, there were a few biscuit crumbs on the floor, which he immediately decided would be okay to eat. They didn't taste very nice though, so he spat them out again, but biscuit crumbs mixed with Imp saliva makes a terrible mess, it's a bit like green slime. Pocket wasn't fussed though, "The roaches will eat that up in no time", he said as he wandered through the little red door at the far end of the large pantry.
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