Wakestone Hall chapter sampler

behind the brass pot that held the aspidistra. The Senior Mistress, Miss Feldspar, stalked past them. She wore a dressing gown and a lace nightcap. If she had turned her head, she would have seen them hiding, but fortunately, she did not. They waited for a second, glanced at one another, and then crept from their hiding place and bolted up the main staircase, taking two stairs at a time. They sprinted along the passageway past Miss Garnet’s parlour, around the corner and up the stairs. As they ran past the mistresses’ bedrooms, a door handle rattled. ‘No!’ gasped Agapanthus. The door opened and Miss Mangan’s head poked out. She looked very peculiar, with a knitted nightcap covering her hair, cold cream covering her face, and without her spectacles or her teeth. Ottilie shrieked, tripped and fell over. Stella and Agapanthus grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet. Miss Mangan peered out at the dark passageway, blinking short-sightedly. ‘Who’s there?’ she asked. Stella and Agapanthus dragged Ottilie around the corner and up the stairs. They sprinted along the passageway, climbed the final, winding staircase and tiptoed along the narrow passageway to the First Form dormitory.

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