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I laugh and he settles on his back holding the diary so he can read it. I slide under his arm and lie against his chest so I can read too.

He says, “I thought if the entity was so interested in the diary there must be something useful in it.”

“Maybe it shows who he answers to.”

He nods. “The fact that the diary’s here slipped my mind the last couple of days. I’ve been so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”

“I think whoever’s causing all this is responsible for that too,” I say. I’d lain awake a while last night going through the sequence of events. “I think he controls more of what’s gone on in this house than we’re aware.”

“In what way?”

I tell him about the spiders and he shudders. “Fuck, that’s creepy. I think I’d rather have had the possession.”

I pinch him. “Too soon.” I settle back. “It was all meant to scare us away.” The knowledge sits in my belly like a cold brick. “He’s powerful and he wants us gone.”

“Well, doesn’t that just mean he’s worried about what we can do and whether we can stop it?”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.” I sigh. I want to take Levi and leave, but I know he won’t do it and he’ll get cross if I even suggest it. “You’re very much a glass half full, Levi.”

“After yesterday it’d be a glass empty because I’d have necked the contents. He wouldn’t bother with us unless we were a threat.”

“Maybe,” I say with a snort. “So, is there anything in the diary?”

“It’s actually really good. Like reading a novel. Xander seems to have been very charming. He’s funny and very observant.”

“How far through it are you?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.

“Not that far. He inherited the house when his father died and he had to come back from London. The diary starts there. It’s mainly house descriptions so far. He grew up there but as an adult he finds it creepy, with unexplained drafts and strange noises. He wrote that he would walk into a room and feel as if someone had just left it.”

“I know that feeling, although my someones usually stick around and want to chat.”

He laughs. “He also talks about the staff. There’s one interesting bloke called Jowan.”

I frown. “That name seems familiar.”

“Didn’t Branok mention it?”

“Yes, I think you’re right. It’s hard to keep all the details straight in my head.”

“He was his father’s manservant and Xander inherited him. He’s an interesting character—a small, quick man with very blue eyes who seems to know more than he says.”

“Branok said Xander trusted him.”

“Well, he didn’t at the point in the diary I’m reading. He says that he disappears a lot, and one night he looked out and saw the man crossing the grounds and heading down to the village. Not suspicious in itself, but there was something furtive about it.”

Interest stirs. “Where did you leave off?”

“When he met Branok.” He winks.

“Get out of here. Show me,” I demand and then hesitate. “It’s not saucy, is it?”

“Not yet, but I’ve got a feeling it could go that way. Xander is a very honest diarist.”

“Delightful. I have zero desire to view Branok in that light.”

He hands the diary over, his finger on the relevant page, but I push it back to him. “You hold it and I’ll lie here.”

He rolls his eyes. “You should have been born with servants.”