The Sisters of Castle Stone

#6: No Boys Allowed

Charlotte's pace quickened as she hurried up the large stone staircase that led to one of the turrets. The further she climbed the louder the noises became. A voice, quiet at first, whispered, so quiet that Charlotte couldn't really hear whether it was male or female. The cold wind whistled through a small window in the tower.

She pulled her warm navy cardigan tighter around her chest to keep out the chill, and walked further up the stone steps towards the small attic room. A strange feeling came over her. She could feel the eyes watching her. She could feel ears listening to every step she made. She could feel their breath and hear their voices.

"Charlotte," a voice from the distance, called her name.

The girl turned to see her father approach.
"Come down please," he said, "we need to look at a few local schools for next term."

Charlotte's heart sank. That was the first time she'd had an opportunity to venture out of her room since they'd moved and her father was putting a stop to it. He stood a few steps behind her, his arms were folded at his chest and his foot tapped against the stone ground.

"I don't have all day."

She sighed, and headed back in his direction.
"Can't I stay here?" She asked.

Her father shook his head, "no, certainly not. You and your sisters won't be allowed to hang about here for long. School is there for a reason. There are no thicko's in this family."

"Fine! I'm coming."

School. Well it wasn't supposed to be as bad as it usually was. If her last school wasn't so awful, whichever one she was sent to next, she'd be back to square one. The new girl, and at her age, it wasn't something she thought she'd be. No friends, certainly not a best friend, she'd be alone again. Charlotte who.

Charlotte followed her father back down into the warm castle, and down the main staircase towards the room he was using as an office. He closed the door behind them, and walked towards the desk where he collected his car keys from a drawer. He paused for a second, reached back inside the same drawer and retrieved an a4 sized brown envelope.

"Here you go," he said, "this is for you."

Charlotte took the envelope from him, and carefully pulled a glossy brochure out. The words, Lady Elizabeth's School for Girls, in big bold letters, stood out amongst the pale background that showed a large palatial building similar to Castle Stone itself.

"You're paying for me to go to boarding school?"

Dad opened the door and walked out of the room towards the front hall.

"No, no, we're not paying for you to go to boarding school, we've applied for you to sit an entrance exam. We think you're bright enough to get a scholarship."

Charlotte followed him out of the castle and towards his car which was parked at the side of the building.

Dad opened the car door, and Charlotte was a little bit surprised to find that both of her sisters were seated inside. She climbed into the back and sat next to Bethany.

The drive away from the castle was a chance for Charlotte and her sisters to see more of the small local village.

Greystone wasn't a large town like the girls and their family were used to, full of shops and beauticians, parks and leisure centres. There were none of those in Greystone. Pretty rows of stone cottages that were once roofed with thatch, lined the main road. At the corner near the crossroads, stood a shop, with gloriously colourful bouquets of flowers sitting in brightly coloured buckets of water outside the door. There was a decent sized pub with wooden tables and benches in a small beer garden nearby. A couple of men sat under a parasol, a pint in their hand and a meal of hot food on the table in front of them. The smell of the meat drifted through the family's open car window as they passed through.