The Other Ghost

A story of Custard Castle

Emma  Laybourn

Published by www.megamousebooks.com

Copyright 2018 Emma Laybourn

This is a free ebook from Megamousebooks.com.

Happy Reading!

The Other Ghost

Bella was dusting the grand Dining-Room when the ghost popped out from under the table.

“Booo,” said the ghost.

“Hallo, ghost,” said Bella. She turned round to look at it.

Then she frowned. This was not the friendly ghost that lived in the wizard’s tower.  It was not thin and shy and wispy. It was large and loud and lumpy. It looked like a big white foggy blob with bits sticking out.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Booo,” said the ghost mournfully.

“Have you come to live here? We’ve already got a ghost at Custard Castle.”

“Booo.”

“What’s your name?”

The big white ghost did not answer. It drifted slowly towards the door and floated out of the Grand Dining Room.

Bella shrugged and went on dusting. “I don’t suppose it’ll stay long,” she thought. “Anyway, ghosts are harmless.”

However, the ghost did not go away. It drifted in and out of the three hundred dusty rooms of Custard Castle. It kept appearing when people weren’t expecting it.

The Queen was putting up a new bathroom shelf when the big white ghost billowed up out of the bath.

“Booo,” it moaned.

The Queen was so startled that she hammered her thumb. She dropped the hammer and jumped up and down.

“Ow Ow Ow!” she shouted.

But by the time she stopped jumping, the ghost had gone.

Princess Fifi was roller-skating down the long gallery. Suddenly the big white ghost loomed out from behind a hat-stand.

“Booo,” it groaned. Fifi was so surprised that she skated straight into the wall and banged her nose.

“Ow Ow Ow!” she yelled.

But by the time she stopped rubbing her nose, the ghost had gone.

The King was sitting on his throne having a nap when the ghost drifted out from under his footstool.

“Booo,” said the ghost hollowly.

The King woke up with such a start that he fell off the throne on to the floor.

“Ow Ow Ow!” he cried.

But by the time he picked himself up, the ghost had gone.

At dinner-time the King, the Queen and Princess Fifi went to the Grand Dining-Room and sat around the table. Bella carried in a big soup tureen. Jack the servant boy took the lid off to serve the hot soup.

Out of the tureen shot the big white ghost. It hovered over the table like a large lumpy cloud.

“Booo,” it bellowed.

Jack was so astonished that he knocked the tureen over. Hot soup poured across the table and splashed into everybody’s laps.

“Ow Ow Ow!” they all shrieked.

But by the time they had mopped themselves up, the ghost had gone.

“That ghost is a real nuisance,” complained the Queen. “It keeps popping up when you least expect it.”

“I wonder whose ghost it is,” said the King.

“It’s probably the ghost of some terrible king who lived here hundreds of years ago,” said Fifi. “Why else would it be wandering around the castle going Booo? It’s trying to scare us!”

“Oh, my!” said the King, turning pale. “We shall have to get rid of it. Jack! Go and find Wizard Watchit. Tell him that the horrible ghost of a terrible ancestor is haunting the castle!”

So Jack went to the Wizard’s tower. He plodded up the stairs to the top, and found the Wizard.

“The King needs you to get rid of a ghost,” said Jack.

The Wizard was horrified. “Get rid of the ghost?”

“Woo woo!” said the ghost who lived in the Wizard’s tower. It looked most alarmed.

“No, not our ghost!” explained Jack. “This is another one. It’s a big white gloomy lump of a ghost and it’s wandering around the castle going Booo.”

“It hasn’t been up here,” said Wizard Watchit. He looked at his friend, the thin and wispy ghost. “Do you know who it is?”

“Woo,” said the ghost, shaking its wispy head.

“The King thinks it’s a horrible ancestor trying to scare us,” said Jack.

“Oh, dear! I suppose I’d better go and look for it,” sighed the Wizard.

So Wizard Watchit and his friend the thin ghost began to hunt through the three hundred rooms of Custard Castle.

They did not have to hunt for long. They were only in room seven when they heard an enormous CRASH.

The crash came from the kitchen. The Wizard and the ghost rushed to the kitchen and burst through the door. They found the Cook hopping up and down and shouting “Ow Ow Ow!”

“What’s the matter?” asked Wizard Watchit.

“A big white blobby ghost just came out of my oven. It made me drop the kettle on my foot!”

The Wizard looked around the kitchen.

“Where did it go?” he asked.

“I think it must have gone out to the kitchen garden,” said the Cook.

The Wizard and the thin ghost hurried out into the garden.

“There it is!” gasped the Wizard. They could see a large lumpy blob with bits sticking out, floating in the middle of the salad bed.

“Now then!” said the Wizard sternly to the blob. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Booo,” moaned the blob.

“Which horrible ancestor are you?” demanded the Wizard.

“Booo,” groaned the blob.

“Why are you haunting our castle?”

“Booo,” hooted the blob.

“Can’t you say anything but Booo?”

“Booo.”

“Maybe this terrible ancestor is under a spell,” said the Wizard. But his friend the ghost wasn’t so sure.

“Woo woo woo?” it asked politely in Ghost Tongue. (This meant, “Who are you?”)

“Booo.”

“Woo woo woo woo?” (This meant, “Is Booo your name?”)

“Booo.”

The ghost was puzzled. This big blobby ghost didn’t seem to speak Ghost Tongue. And was it really saying Boo? It must be, because Boo was what lots of ghosts said.

“Booo,” said the big ghost again, mournfully. It drifted slowly out of the salad bed and floated over to the cabbages.

The thin ghost watched it. It was a very strange shape. It was shaped nothing like a King, or a terrible ancestor. It was shaped more like a –

“Wooo!” exclaimed the thin ghost. “Woo woo woo!”

And it waved its wispy arms in the air. “Woo woo!” it cried as loudly as it could.

The large and lumpy ghost began to move. It drifted out of the cabbage bed, across the garden.

It floated round the outside of the castle with the thin ghost waving and going “woo woo woo!” behind it. Now and then it moaned “Booo,” but it kept moving.

The surprised Wizard didn’t know what was going on. He followed the two ghosts to find out.

As they passed the dining room window, the King and Queen and Princess Fifi inside heard a Woo and a Booo. They looked out and saw the two ghosts and Wizard Watchit.

“There’s the terrible ancestor!” said the King, shuddering. “The Wizard’s caught it!”

“We’d better go and make sure he can get rid of it,” said the Queen.

“Oh, we’ll leave him to it. I’m sure he can cope,” said the King. He did not want to get too close to that terrible ancestor who kept bellowing Booo.

But Fifi jumped up, saying, “Come on! Let’s go and see!”

Outside, the wispy ghost waved its wispy arms one last time. It steered the other ghost slowly round the corner and straight into the stable.

“Woo woo woo,” it told Wizard Watchit. The Wizard shut the stable door just as everybody came running out of the castle.

“Thank goodness you’ve locked it up!” exclaimed the Queen. “Well done you!”

“You’ve saved the castle from a terrifying ancestor! Hurrah!” cried Fifi.

“Which terrifying ancestor was it?” asked the King. “Was it a fierce and wicked King from hundreds of years ago?”

“Um…” said the Wizard. He had no idea.

“Woo woo woo woo,” his friend the ghost whispered to him.

“Really?” said the Wizard.

“Woo.”

“Truly?” gasped the Wizard.

“Woo.”

“But…” The Wizard’s mouth fell open.

“Well?” snapped the King. “What’s the answer?”

“Um… It is indeed a terribly wicked, fierce and horrible ancestor, your Majesty,” gabbled the Wizard. “Too horrible to even have a name.”

“I knew it!” said the King. “Is it safe now?”

The Wizard opened the stable door a crack and peeped inside. The large white lumpy ghost was rustling in the straw.

“Yes, it’s quite safe,” he told the King.

“Good! Well done, Watchit.” And the King marched back inside the castle with the Queen and Princess Fifi.

Only the Wizard and the thin ghost were left outside.

“It will be safe in the stable, won’t it?” asked the Wizard.

“Woo,” said his friend the ghost with a wispy grin.

“Oh, good. Because I don’t want the king to find out who his terrible ancestor really is.”

“Woo!”

“It wasn’t going Booo at all, was it?” said the Wizard. “We heard it wrong. But I don’t think I’ll tell the King that he’s been haunted by a large, lost cow.”

And from inside the stable came a low and happy Mooo.

The End

You can find more Custard Castle stories, and lots of other free ebooks, at Emma Laybourn’s website www.megamousebooks.com/ .