MAGDALENA'S GHOST: THE HAUNTING OF THE HOUSE IN GALLOWS LANE by PEPPI HILTON Page B

according to plan, they expected the transaction to be completed by early the following year. They had even been told that the council could possibly arrange the finance. It was all too good to be true as far as Anton was concerned. He just knew that they were destined to become owners of Juniper House; it was fate that had taken them to the hamlet of Judge Fields that day – he just knew it. And to top it all, it was likely that they were going to get it at a bargain price if they accepted his ridiculously low offer.
    He’d been told very little about the previous owners, except that the last two women had lived as recluses and had both gone mad. There were no other known family members. The house had been empty for many years, and as there was no-one personally responsible for its upkeep, it had deteriorated with time.
    Lucy had had misgivings about the house from the very start, but she was even less impressed when she heard about the last two occupants having gone mad. Her mind continually reverted back to the old woman in ragged clothes, who she was convinced she had seen at the foot of the stairs that day. Maybe the old woman was one of the mad ones. But of course Anton thought she was mad for even suggesting it, and he was certainly not prepared to accept that she’d seen anyone and so refused to discuss it further.
    But there was definitely something about that house and she just couldn’t put her finger on it. All she knew was that she had reservations about the place and wished that Anton had never set eyes on it. He wouldn’t listen to her, or see reason, which was so unlike him; and to crown it all he thought she was being neurotic and ungrateful.
    He seemed to have gone through a personality change since the first time he’d seen Juniper. But that in turn made Lucy wonder whether she was now only just seeing the real Anton. Perhaps she’d been walking around wearing rose-tinted glasses and hadn’t really been able to see through him – until now. She tried to push those terrible thoughts to the back of her mind otherwise she risked the two of them becoming distant.
    But the nagging thoughts returned over and over again. Why was he so hooked on the place? She was mystified, and concerned too. But they had already set out on the road of purchasing the damned thing, and he wouldn’t be deterred no matter what. Even if she refused to go along with it, he would still go ahead regardless and that hurt her deeply. So she had no choice but to stand by his side – or leave him. And the latter was not what she had in mind. However, the more she dwelt on it all, the more she came round to his way of thinking. Maybe he was right about her being typical of most women who walk around big, old, empty houses and become jittery; imagining that things will go bump in the night and the corridors will be haunted by previous occupants. Each time she approached the subject he was driven to laughter, making her feel rather dejected and silly. She decided to keep quiet in the end and not mention any of her speculative thoughts again.
    During the time that Anton was the main key holder and whilst waiting for the loan to come through, he had been back to the pub a few times but it was never open. The old man seemed to have disappeared. He had hoped to see him again to thank him for his help and to buy him a beer, but every time he went over to Judge Fields to work on the grounds of Juniper, there was no sign of life.
    He continually dwelt on the identity of the old man – the man with no name. Perhaps he was an ex-convict, guilty of some heinous crime for which he had served his sentence. His speech, Anton had noticed from the very beginning, had not been local but refined and he somehow had an air of superiority about him, plus an intelligence which was uncommon in a place like Judge Fields. His appearance contradicted his mannerisms and made Anton think he could be someone in disguise, someone who didn’t want his identity