Clementine Rose pushed back the bed covers and slipped down onto the cool wooden floor. A full moon hung low in the sky, lighting up pockets of the garden outside and casting a yellow glow over her room. Somewhere, a shutter was banging in the breeze, keeping time like a drummer in a marching band. But that’s not what woke Clementine up. She was used to the noises of Penberthy House. It talked to her all the time.

Clementine tiptoed to the end of her bed and knelt down. She rested her head on Lavender’s tummy but the little pig was fast asleep in her basket. Her shallow breaths were interrupted every now and then by a snorty grunt.

‘I’d better get dressed,’ Clementine whispered. ‘I don’t want to be late on the first day.’

Clementine skipped over to her wardrobe. Hanging on the door was her favourite new outfit. There was a pretty pink and white checked tunic, white socks and red shoes. Clementine especially adored the red blazer with swirly letters embroidered on the pocket. It was her new school uniform, which she had insisted on wearing around the house for the past week. Clementine had packed and repacked her schoolbag for almost a month too.

Clementine wriggled out of her pyjamas and got dressed, buckling her shoes last of all. She brushed her hair and pinned it off her face with a red bow. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror.

‘Very smart,’ she whispered to herself, just as Mrs Mogg had done when Clementine had appeared at the village store in her uniform the day before. Clementine glanced at her pet, who hadn’t moved a muscle. She decided to let Lavender sleep in and headed downstairs to find her mother and Uncle Digby.

On the way, she stopped to chat with her grandparents. Well, with the portraits of her grandparents that hung on the wall.

‘Good morning, Granny and Grandpa. Today’s that big day I was telling you all about yesterday and the day before and the day before that. I can’t wait. I’ll get to play with Sophie and Poppy and I’m going to learn how to read and do numbers and tell the time. Did you like school?’ She peered up at her grandfather. She could have sworn he nodded his head ever so slightly.

‘What about you, Granny?’ She looked at the portrait of her grandmother dressed in a splendid gown, with the Appleby diamond tiara on her head. She wore the matching necklace and earrings too. Everyone had thought the jewellery was lost until Aunt Violet had found it when she came to stay. Now the tiara and earrings were safely hidden away in the vault while her mother decided what to do with them; the necklace was still missing. Uncle Digby said that if the jewellery was sold it would bring enough money to pay for a new roof, which Penberthy House badly needed. But Lady Clarissa said that she would wait a while to decide. The roof had leaked for years and they were used to putting the buckets out, so there was no hurry.

Clementine studied her grandmother’s expression. There was just a hint of a lovely smile. She took that to mean that she had enjoyed school too.

Clementine looked at the next portrait along, which showed a beautiful young woman. Clementine had called her Grace until, to her surprise, her Great-Aunt Violet had arrived at the house a few months ago and revealed that she was the woman in the painting. Clementine was shocked to learn that the woman was still alive because everyone else in the pictures was long gone.

Aunt Violet and Clementine hadn’t exactly hit it off when they first met but for now the old woman was away on a world cruise, so Clementine didn’t have to worry about her. Sooner or later, though, she’d be back.

Uncle Digby always said that a day at the seaside would cheer anyone up. So Clementine thought Aunt Violet should be the happiest person on earth by the time she returned from her cruise. When she had told her mother and Uncle Digby that, they had both laughed and said that they hoped very much that she was right.

Downstairs in the hallway, the ancient grandfather clock began to chime. Clemmie always thought it sounded sad.

She counted the chimes out loud. ‘One, two, three, four. Mummy will have to get that silly clock fixed. It can’t be four o’clock because everyone knows that’s in the afternoon. Have a good day,’ she said to her relatives on the wall. ‘I’ll tell you all about school when I get home and maybe, Grandpa, I’ll have learned a new poem for you.’ Ever since Clemmie could talk, Uncle Digby had taught her poems, which she loved to recite. She often performed for guests who came to stay too, and even though she couldn’t yet read, she had a wonderful memory.

Clementine bounced down the stairs and along the hallway to the kitchen. It was still in darkness. Pharaoh, Aunt Violet’s sphynx cat, was asleep in his basket beside the stove.

‘Mummy and Uncle Digby must be having a sleep-in, like Lavender and Pharaoh,’ Clementine said to herself. She hoped they would be up soon.

The little girl climbed onto the stool in the pantry and pulled out a box of cereal, set a bowl and a spoon on the table and fetched the milk from the fridge.

She managed to pour her breakfast without spilling too much. Thankfully, none landed on her uniform.

Clementine listened to the sounds of the house as she ate. Sometimes when people came to stay they asked her mother if Penberthy House had any ghosts. Most children Clemmie’s age would have been frightened by the idea, but she often imagined her grandfather and grandmother coming to life at night-time, stepping out of their paintings and having tea in the sitting room, or drifting through the halls.

Clementine swallowed the last spoonful of cereal. ‘Good,’ she said to herself. ‘Now I can go as soon as Mummy and . . . Uncle Digby . . .’ Her eyelids drooped and she yawned loudly.

She rested her head on the table and within a minute she was fast asleep.