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‘That big guy with the booming voice. Jeez, that guy can talk! Mrs Smithson was sound asleep, but he was so loud, I thought he’d wake the living!’ She laughed and Polly realised she wasn’t as annoyed about the visit as she might have been, which was a relief.

‘Big guy with the booming voice?’ she mused. ‘I’m guessing you mean Isaac. Isaac Grace. He was the landlord of The Quicken Tree back in the seventeenth century.’

‘Yeah, that’s the guy,’ Harmony said. She shuddered. ‘Dang, I wish I’d never gone in The Quicken Tree that night. Then again, if it hadn’t been there, it would have been somewhere else…’ She shook her head and turned to Polly. ‘Do you know there are rumours among the ghosts that I was murdered?’

Polly’s eyes widened. ‘Murdered? No! You weren’t, were you?’

Harmony gave a brittle laugh. ‘No way. What happened to me was entirely my own fault. I was on a mission to self-destruct and boy did I ever succeed.’

Polly watched as the actress faded once more to black and white. ‘You’ve done it again,’ she remarked gently.

Harmony held out her arm and snorted with impatience. ‘This is real unfair, you know? I’m an actress! I should be able to hide my true emotions, but this is giving me away every single time. Gee, being a ghost sucks.’

Polly said nothing. Sometimes, she thought the afterlife was a lot of fun.

At other times, she agreed with Harmony.

It really did suck. No eating or drinking.

No hugging your living relatives. No reuniting with the ones that had passed over.

No knowing how long you were going to be stuck like this. Forever was a long, long time…

‘So anyway,’ Harmony said, ‘what they’re saying is that you and I were murdered by the same person. Which is crazy because the only person who killed me is me, and I sure as hell didn’t kill you.’

Polly couldn’t understand any of this. ‘Why are they all talking about this now? It’s nearly eighty years ago! And most of them were around at the time and must have known how we died and that it wasn’t connected.’

‘It seems,’ Harmony told her, ‘that this guy, Isaac, overheard some conversation in the bar about you. You have a niece, right?’

‘A great-niece,’ Polly corrected her. ‘Shona. Is this about her conversation with Max?’

Harmony waved a hand dismissively. ‘I have no clue who she was talking to, but she was talking to someone, and they seemed to believe that you were murdered by Sir Edward Davenport – you know, the guy who used to own this place?’

Polly’s jaw tightened. ‘I know who Sir Edward was.’

‘Yeah, well, I don’t know what it is, but the ghosts have really got excited about this conversation.

Strike that, I know exactly what it is. They’re bored, and this is something new to talk about, right?

So now they’re coming up with theories of their own.

They’ve got some kind of bet on, and Isaac came to me for inside information.

Like, was I absolutely sure I hadn’t been pushed into the river – that kind of thing. ’

‘He never did!’ Polly gasped.

‘Oh, he did, honey. I guess you can’t blame him, or any of them.’

‘I bloody can!’ Polly was furious. ‘They have no right, stirring all this up again after so many years. Don’t they have any idea how painful it is, thinking about that time? It’s not some detective serial on the wireless. It was my life .’ She lowered her head. ‘It was my death.’

Harmony picked at some imaginary loose thread on her trousers. ‘You know what else Isaac told me?’ she asked, giving Polly a sideways glance. ‘He told me that your niece and this guy she was with almost kissed. And they would have done if the bartender hadn’t interrupted them.’

Polly didn’t know how to respond to that. ‘Are – are you sure?’ she said at last.

Harmony shrugged. ‘That’s what Isaac reckons, and he was sure close enough to see it all.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘He was sitting right there at the table with them. So rude! I’d have socked him one if he’d tried that with me. Then again, I guess we have to get our kicks where we can these days.’

‘Shona and Max!’

Her great-niece – Norman’s granddaughter – and Gerhard’s grandson…

‘Ya know, Isaac says he’s been trailing the two of them, trying to pick up clues, and he’s pretty convinced they’re in some kind of relationship. But it might be all over already.’

Polly mentally shook her head and switched her attention back to Harmony. ‘Over? What do you mean?’

‘She told him about us. About the ghosts. Told him she couldn’t help him find out what happened to you because it would upset you too much and she didn’t want to hurt you.

How lucky are you? You’ve got living family right here in the village, and they love you so much, they’d sacrifice their relationships for you. Some of us ain’t so fortunate.’

‘She told him that?’ If Shona had revealed the truth to Max about this village and about Polly, in particular, she must care about him a lot. And Polly had been so hard on her, telling her to cut contact with him because it was too uncomfortable for her!

But I wasn’t being selfish. This isn’t just about me.

‘Polly, can I ask you something?’

Polly blinked and turned to Harmony, vaguely noticing that she’d returned to full colour again. ‘Of course.’

‘Remember when you came to see me, and I asked you if you could forgive the person who killed you?’

Polly nodded, her throat feeling tight at the memory.

‘You didn’t reply. D’ya think you can answer that question now?’

Polly’s eyes filled with tears she could never shed as she stared at the actress who was watching her with surprising compassion. ‘Why does it matter to you so much?’

Harmony seemed to slump. ‘I guess – I guess I’m hoping that if even a murderer can be forgiven, there might be hope for me.’

‘But what on earth did you do that was so terrible?’ Polly asked, aghast.

Predictably, Harmony’s colour drained again, but Polly felt it best not to mention it.

‘Something real bad,’ Harmony said. ‘Something I’ve regretted ever since.

You know, I figured I’d been punished enough for it.

Twice over, in fact. But it don’t make no difference.

I still can’t get past it. I just need some folks to forgive me.

I mean, they ain’t around or nothing, but even so… So, can you?’

‘Forgive him?’ she whispered.

‘Is it too much?’ Harmony asked gently. ‘I totally get it if it is. I was just wondering…’

‘I forgave him a long, long time ago,’ Polly managed, her voice thick with emotion. ‘How could I not? I loved him.’

Harmony squeezed her hand. ‘Wow. Really? And love cancels out what he did?’ She gazed ahead of her for a long moment, then turned back to Polly.

‘Aw, honey, you’ve had such a tough time of it.

All these years when you’ve had to carry your secrets, not even able to tell your loved ones.

But maybe it’s time you trusted them with the truth, huh?

Time to face up to what happened and let it all go. For their sake as much as yours.’

Polly gave her a stricken look. She could feel the panic rising in her as memories tumbled through her mind. She never went there! But the mental block she’d placed on them seemed to be breaking down, and she didn’t know how to stop it.

She was dimly aware of Harmony’s arm going around her shoulders.

‘That’s it, honey. Have a good cry. Well, the best you can in the circumstances.

You know, I’ll bet it doesn’t feel that way right now, but this could be the best thing that ever happens to you.

It’s time to face up to the past, Polly, and you know what?

If you do that, I promise you things are going to get a whole lot brighter for you. I swear it!’

‘You don’t understand. You don’t know !’ Polly sobbed.

‘Aw, sweetie.’ Harmony lifted Polly’s chin with her little finger and faced her, her own eyes shining with unshed tears. ‘I do know. I know it all.’

So Harmony had been in the woods that night! She’d seen everything!

‘You – you didn’t tell Isaac?’ she whispered.

‘No way! This is between you and your family. Let the others think what they like. But, Polly, have courage now. Go and tell them what really happened. Trust them.’

‘What if they hate me?’

Harmony laughed. ‘They won’t hate you! Jeez…’ She broke off and shook her head. ‘Tell them, Polly. Then just watch when things start to get better all round.’

Deep down, Polly knew she was right. Shona had put her first and possibly lost the chance of a new love because of it.

Jimmy and Shona’s relationship had been damaged, which would have been unthinkable just days ago.

And Polly was tired of keeping so many secrets from the people she loved.

Tired of carrying the burden on her own.

Harmony had a point. Polly needed to trust them. Trust that they’d understand. Trust that they’d forgive.

It was time to be brave.