Close to the Wall

By Nicholas Foster

Ghosts from the Fenlands of East Anglia. When a water-logged field belonging to a medieval Church is sold off for development, the Middle Ages come back to haunt the present. A story of migration, of the living and the dead. A sequel to 'Four Ghost Stories' (The Rustling of Silk, The Comrades, Joining the Dance, Ghosts in the Machine), 'Four More Ghost Stories' (Mr Westgrove, The Ghosts Within, A Sound of Singing, The Final Page), 'The Consul from Tunis', 'The Ghostwriter' and 'The Ragged Girl', all of which are available for free download.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicholas Foster
• Release date: Oct 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005464301

Nicholas Foster

I have published ten small books of ghost stories on Smashwords; 'Four Ghost Stories' (The Rustling of Silk, The Comrades, Joining the Dance, Ghosts in the Machine), 'Four More Ghost Stories' (Mr Westgrove, The Ghosts Within, A Sound of Singing, The Final Page), 'The Consul from Tunis', 'The Ghostwriter', 'The Ragged Girl', 'Close to the Wall', 'The Hand of Justice', 'Stavrakis', 'On the Bridge' and 'The Ice House'. Many of the stories draw on places where I've lived and worked. All the characters are fictitious, even the ghosts, except for those who have walked out of the pages of History. All my books are available for free download on Smashwords. A collected print version, 'The Consul from Tunis: and other ghost stories' is available as a paperback from Amazon.

Book preview

CLOSE TO THE WALL

Nicholas Foster

Published by Nicholas Foster at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 Nicholas Foster

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes. Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form.

Chapter One

This would have been Harrington’s turn to tell a ghost story at our annual reunions. So we paused when the coffees and port had been served to observe a minute’s silence in his memory and in gratitude for the generous bequest in his will which was to fund our annual reunion dinners in a an upstairs dining-room at Rules in Maiden Lane in perpetuity – or until the money had run out. We turned to Stephen, the only Vicar amongst us, for a formal blessing or a speech but he just smiled and raised his glass, To Harrington, God bless him!

To Harrington! we chorused.

Well, it falls to me then, said Stephen, to step in and tell the next story. Can I just say that it’s always a treat for me to come to these reunions. Not just to meet you all, but for a chance to spend a day or two in the Big City, a far cry from my windswept Derbyshire.

I’ve been struck the last few times I’ve come down here how British Rail has been selling off every last scrap of land as