The phone rang at 8 a.m. It rang downstairs in the kitchen. For a moment Tovey buried himself beneath the duvet, hoping his wife would stir and save him the trouble of having to answer the bloody thing! No such luck! Susan grunted deeply and sank even further into the welcoming maw of feather filled cambric. Shit! He scrambled out of bed and staggered downstairs, his feet chilled on the cold flagstones of the kitchen floor. Grumbling, he grabbed at the offending apparatus and put it to his ear, only to discover that the caller had rung off!
'Bloody typical! 8 am on a Sunday morning and some pratt is on the sodding phone!'
He replaced the receiver and shambled back upstairs to the bedroom, barely making the door before it began to ring again!
This time a voice was on the other end of the line. It was Keith Murphy, Tovey's old college chum, ringing from Greece. 'Of course', Tovey thought, recalling sun drenched beaches in the Aegean, 'They're two hours ahead of us, they've just had breakfast there.' Tovey spoke intently, he had not seen Murphy for a long time.
"....Oh not too bad Murf. Look, I know you never ring without a reason. What is it I can do you for?"
The distant, crackly voice on the other end of the line laughed.
"Well actually we're planning to come back to England next week."
"Next week? I thought you'd told me you'd gone to live out there for good, surely you're not forsaking all that sun and sand to come and live in wet soggy Britain?"
"No, not exactly. We're just coming over for a month. Chance to revisit a few old haunts and see friends and relatives. I was wondering if you might like to put up with us for a few days?"
Tovey laughed. "Well when are you planning on coming? I'm sure we can make some arrangements. I'll have to fix it with Sue first of course."
"Huh! Same old Tovey, firmly under the thumb. You ought to assert yourself a bit more mate, grab yourself some freedom!"
"Freedom ! That's a joke coming from you! Your wife goes out to work and you stay home to mind two kids! You forget we don't have any. We can come and go as we please."
"It must be nice for some!"
"How are the twins anyway? Last time I saw them they were just toddlers."
"They're fine Tovey. Two fine young lasses. I tell you you don't know what you're missing not being a dad!"
Tovey smiled ruefully to himself. He had never revealed to Murphy that they were unable to have children. It had always been a hollow pretence of 'career before family with us'.
"I bet you don't get much peace and quiet though! How's Alison then? The computers haven't made her one of them yet I hope?
"Oh no. She's as fiercely independent as ever. She's got a thing about Greek pottery styles at the moment. You know how it is with her, a constantly changing love affair with the arts. Last year it was tole painting, this year it's pottery."
"As long as that's all it is. You picked a wild one there Murf."
"Well that's what we both wanted...no ties. Turned out a bit different to what we planned though."
"I'll say. Anyway... when were you planning to descend upon us?"
"Well, we expect to be in Lancashire by next Friday so it would be sometime around then "
Tovey smiled to himself. Murphy had never been one for times and appointments. "O.K. We'll try and work around that. But don't leave it till too late in the day. This place is way off the beaten track. Be warned... you'll have a hard time finding us!"
"Oh don't worry Tovey, we'll get to you somehow! "
Tovey listened on the phone for a further 10 minutes as his friend rambled on about recent adventures in Greece until Tovey tactfully pointed out to him that if Murphy stayed on the line much longer he wouldn't have enough money left to be able to visit Lancashire! When he finally put the receiver down he found his wife up and dressed and making breakfast.
"What was all that love? Anything interesting?"
"No, it was just my mistress in Chipping Welburn!"
"Oh yes? Well I'd better not see you with her again. I don't want to catch sheep scab!"
Tovey grinned. "Actually it was Keith Murphy in Greece. He's coming here next Friday."
"What?? You're pulling my leg surely?"
He flashed her the famous 'angelic Tovey glance'.
"Would I lie?? Actually, they're coming back home for a month and would like to come and visit us for a few days."
Susan frowned. "Well O.K., but we're going to have to clean this shit tip up and get some supplies in before they come. I don't want arty Alison to see me in my domestic squalor."
Tovey sighed. He knew what that meant. 'Perfect host syndrome!' His wife would now devote the whole of the following week to cooking, cleaning, decorating and gardening in a frenzied effort to get everything 'just so'. As the time drew near she would get more and more worked up and overwrought, he would be able to do nothing right, and it would all end up with the usual blazing row just before the arrival of the guests. Tovey knew his wife only too well!!
So it transpired. The imminent arrival of the Murphys changed things at Butterkeld, and cleaning, tidying up and buying in became briefly the order of the day and Tovey, tied up in this sudden flurry of activity found little opportunity to sit and reflect upon the curious events of the past few days. On the contrary, his inclination was to allow these unpalatable happenings to recede to the back of his mind and to deny them substance. Since his opening of the Wellhouse no further incidents had occurred, and it began to seem to him that in releasing whatever it was that had been bottled up inside he had made an end to the matter. The Ghost (if that was what it was) had, it seemed, been well and truly laid.
Perhaps it was a good thing that Tovey now entertained such a frame of mind, for on the Wednesday his wife suddenly came out with a most surprising suggestion. They had been watching the TV and Tovey, as was often his wont was sprawled out full length upon the settee, his head in his wife's lap. He felt at ease, serene, like a cat that has just finished off a tin of cream. He was therefore unprepared for his wife's sudden, startling proposition.
"John...."
"Hmmm......?"
"I've been thinking... about the Wellhouse"
"What about the Wellhouse?"
"I think we ought to open it up."
"It is opened up!"
"That's not what I mean. I was thinking about those bricked up windows. I think you should knock them through and let the light in, make it as it was originally, it would look beautiful ."
Tovey was unimpressed. "It would be less trouble all round if we left it alone. I can't see the point of it myself."
"Arty Alison. She's the point. You know what she's like about such things. Remember how she used to brag about her Georgian plasterwork?
"So?"
"Well I'm going to play her at her own game. When she sees our wellhouse she'll be gobsmacked. There can't be many people who have a shrine in their back garden!"
So that was it- 'one-upmanship'. Unworthy of her he thought.
The weather remained hot and humid, and the following morning Tovey, at his wife's instigation sallied forth with lump hammer and chisel and began work on the windows of the Wellhouse. As his chisel gouged savagely into the crumbling mortar and brickwork Tovey felt a momentary unease, but it proved to be unfounded. He hammered and shattered, cursed and sweated under the hot sun, but the Wellhouse didn't seem to mind and by mid afternoon, with the piles of rubble cleared away, Tovey was at last able to sit back and admire his handiwork.
He was impressed. Shafts of bright sunlight now pierced the lancet windows and bathed the whole in a radiant glow, reflecting on the busy, bustling waters within. The gloom and darkness seemed suddenly dispelled and all had become radiance and light. He listened to the babbling gurgling voice of the Wellhouse. This was its song and it was singing!
The Murphys arrived late on the Friday afternoon, just in time for tea, and as Murf's two little girls came bounding excitedly up the path it seemed to Tovey that the old house was somehow gratified by their arrival. If a house could smile, Tovey fancied, then that was what Butterkeld must be doing now in the evening sunlight. It was as if it had been waiting long, empty years for this single moment.
Murphy had changed little. Just a little greyer it seemed. He was still tall and gaunt, with big hands and a nose to match. The hands of a rock climber and a caver. Tovey recalled the college days. There had been theatre trips and museum visits. He also recalled that while he had been engaged in these pursuits Murphy had been abseiling down cliffs, shooting rapids in a kayak or thrutching his way through abandoned phreatic tubes. As Murphy's big hand reached out in pursuit of the obligatory bone crushing handshake, Tovey wondered if his old mate had mellowed any in the fullness of time. Knowing Murf's incorrigible nature he doubted it somewhat.
Alison seemed to have changed though. Perhaps becoming a mother had slowed her down, or perhaps it was just her colouring. At college she had been small and thin with dark brown doe eyes and long shiny raven-black hair. Tovey could not help but notice that she had grown plumper and was, as is the tendency with most black haired people, going prematurely grey. In other respects she hadn't changed. She was still a fully paid up member of what Tovey had once derisively dubbed 'the curtain and pumps brigade'. She was wearing purple suede leather cowboy boots, an asian embroidered waistcoat, and a dress which looked like it had one graced the windows of a chintzy cottage kitchen. The whole thing was capped by a patterned, knitted cap which although quite normal to the Quechua indians of the Peruvian Andes seemed somehow out of place in the rural fastnesses of northern Lancashire! The rest comprised of a series of ethnic beads, hand crafted belts, mysterious looking tooled leather pouches and an embroidered gasmask case which had been assigned to the less warlike role of 'ladies handbag'.
"Tovey!" she gushed, embracing him fully with the half-seductive air of one who regards herself as God's gift to men, "What a lovely house!!".
The Murphys soon settled in at Butterkeld. Not too difficult perhaps, considering that Susan had spent the best part of the week preparing for their arrival. After Tovey had unloaded their luggage, his wife took it upon herself to show them around, and insisted, in the face of Tovey's faint resistance, on revealing to them the architectural delights of 'the wonderful Wellhouse'. Afterwards all retired to the front garden, where tea was taken on a rustic table by the lounge window. As the twins played in the bushes at the edge of the garden, the adults drank coffee and exchanged pleasantries, the main topic of conversation being Murphy's exploits in Greece. Inevitably however, the subject of conversation was to turn towards the Well House.
"So what do you think of our Well House then? Bit unusual isn't it?"
Alison beamed over her coffee. "It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. It's beautiful. It reminds me of something I once saw in a grotto in Greece, but I've never seen anything like it in England. I'd like to do a picture of it if you don't mind."
"A picture? What, you mean a painting?"
"No. I was thinking more along the lines of a collage. I do a lot of them nowadays. I did a marvellous one at Knossos in Crete last year. I'll have to get some materials of course. I'll need some fabric, board and glue. Have you got any old rags about the house?"
Tovey smiled, resisting the urge to say 'have you tried looking in your suitcase?' "I think we've got some old clothes in the boxroom," He replied, "I'll see what I can dig out for you."
As conversation continued, the evening sun started to set over the trees, and tiny pipistrelle bats began to glide and soar around the warm yellow stones. An air of satisfied tranquillity seemed to hang about the place, the realisation of that idyll which had led Tovey to come and live at this enchanted spot in the first place. For the first time in some weeks Tovey felt content and relaxed. It seemed too good to be true.
Next morning after breakfast Alison announced to the assembled company that she would be taking the car into Chipping Welburn in pursuit of artist's materials, and was there anything else anybody wanted from the village post office? The twins, Thomasina and Tamara, of course wanted to go with her, but were seduced away by the promise of a walk on the moors with Tovey and their father. Susan, who did not get away much from Butterkeld, opted to go with Alison.
It was about 11 am when Tovey and Murphy got back to to Butterkeld, to find that Alison had returned from Chipping Welburn and had firmly esconced herself across the yard from the well house, where she was sitting at a table cutting out strips of fabric. Susan was preparing lunch, so liberating a six pack from the fridge the two men settled themselves in the front garden while the twins went to play by the beck.
It was Murphy who spoke first.
"You know you're bloody lucky... living in a place like this."
Tovey smiled. "I'm not so sure. It must be lovely in Greece."
Murf scratched his head. "Well it is. But it's not as wonderful as you might think. People have this idea that Greece is an unspoilt Mediterranean paradise. When you say 'Greece' the last thing they think of are docks, and dirty industrial complexes discharging toxic wastes into the sea. They don't see slum tenements, poverty, and urban life. They think it's all one sunsoaked sub tropical beach backed by classical ruins."
"The real Greece eh?"
"Oh yes. Where we live for example, a flat in the suburbs of Athens. If you had red bricks and drizzle it could be Salford! Yes, there are lovely places, but you have to drive to them, just the same as you would if you lived in Greater Manchester. Now here- it is lovely. Its remote, rural, and its got this most incredible atmosphere. It almost feels like time has stood still."
"Yes it is a bit like that." Tovey paused for a moment, like one contemplating taking a plunge...then he spoke, in a low voice." Tell me Murf, have you ever encountered anything on your travels that you might call 'supernatural'?"
"What, you mean have I ever seen a ghost? Afraid not mate. But I try to keep an open mind."
"Well what would you say if I told you that I thought there was something strange here at Butterkeld?"
"Wouldn't surprise me... looks like a very old place. Why, has something been happening?"
Tovey then went on to tell Murphy about his recent experiences. The story told, Murphy lit a cigarette, a grave look upon his face.
"Have you told Susan about all this?"
"No. I don't want to alarm or worry her. Yet I must confess that I haven't actually encountered anything that a sceptic could not put down to an over active imagination.... and the old woman Susan saw.... well she might actually have been a passing gypsy woman. Certainly that's what Sue thinks."
"And you say nothing's happened since?"
"No. The atmosphere is quite different now, It changed after I opened the Wellhouse, and it's changed again since you arrived, although I can't think why!"
At that moment Tovey heard a shout, followed by gales of giggling laughter on the other side of the wall. Murphy grinned.
"Oh-oh. Looks like the twins are back! I wonder what they've been up to? Come on Tove, lets see how Allie is getting on with her picture."
They passed through the house and out into the back yard. The twins were standing around Alison, handing her strips of cloth.
"But mummy, why can't we go back into the wood to play? It's ever so nice there."
"You can play out after lunch. Susan has made something special for you, and she'll be serving it up in a minute."
"Well can we go tell Lizzie that we'll be back after lunch? We'll come straight back."
Alison smiled. "Well alright then. But hurry!"
Tovey stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Who's Lizzie ?"
Alison laughed. "Oh no-one in particular. Lizzie is their imaginary friend."
"Imaginary friend?"
Murphy grinned. "I can see you've never had much dealings with kids Tove. Lots of kids have imaginary friends. When they're toddlers its teddies or cot blankets, but as they get older they invent companions to play with."
"How long have they been playing with 'Lizzie' then?"
Alison looked up from her collage. "Strangely enough not very long. It's always been Clem you see. Clem's a little boy- they have all kinds of adventures with him. They started playing with 'Lizzie' last Sunday. Just before we set off for England. It seems she's a special English friend."
Tovey smiled. "Oh I see. Funny, aren't they... kids?"
Alison laughed. "You don't know the half of it!!"
As Susan began to serve lunch Tovey sat there, looking thoughtful. His initial sense of relief that 'Lizzie' had not been what he thought was now starting to give way to an increasing sense of doubt. Was it just co-incidence? It occurred to him that 'Lizzie' had begun playing with the kids on the same day that Murphy had announced his forthcoming visit to Butterkeld. Could a ghost travel to Athens?? Ridiculous! Tovey laughed at himself for being so silly!
Nonetheless the thought remained in his mind throughout lunch, and afterwards Tovey resolved to pursue the matter further. Excusing himself from the rest of the party, he followed the kids down to the stream, where they were playing below the waterfall.
"I hope you girls can swim. Don't you know that the water is deep in that plunge pool?"
Tamara (the tallest girl) grinned. "It's alright Mr. Tovey, we can both swim. We learnt to swim in Athens."
"And what about your friend Lizzie? Can she swim?"
"No Mr. Tovey" piped up Thomasina "We've told her to keep away from deep water."
"Is she playing with you today then?"
"She's not here now, is she Tamy? She was with us this morning, but we got called in for lunch. When we went back to tell her she'd gone."
"And does Lizzie live with you in Greece too?"
"Oh no Mr. Tovey. She lives here."
"But your mum says you played with her in Greece!"
"No Mr Tovey. She spoke to us in Greece, over the telephone. She met us when we arrived. She said we'd like it here."
Tovey froze. This was not what he had wanted to hear.
"And what's she like, your friend Lizzie?"
"Well she's small isn't she Tamy?"
"Yes... she has black hair,"
"... and dark eyes."
"...and you say she lives here?"
"That's right Mr. Tovey. In your Well House. She has to look after it you know. It's her job, isn't it Tamy?"
The tall girl nodded assent. They were so matter of fact, just as if they were talking about a real person.
"And how come I've not seen her then?"
"There's nobody here for her to play with," said Thomasina. "When we've gone she'll be all alone again, won't she Tamy?"
"Yes...Poor Lizzie!!"
Tovey withdrew gracefully. He had heard all he cared to hear. Here she was again... Lizzie Caldwell, this time in the guise of a child. What did she want? Why would she not rest? The opening of the Wellhouse had not laid her. Tovey now knew that the wheels of an irrevocable destiny had been somehow set in motion, and a cycle of events seemed set to run their course. As to what they might be he did not care to speculate. Strange things were happening, beyond his control. Tovey began to sweat profusely and quickly realised why. Beneath the bluff exterior he was thoroughly scared.