Where Spirits Dwell … a sneak peek.

Only ten days left until Where Spirits Dwell is in the bookshops! To celebrate, here’s the first of a series of sneak peeks I’m going to be posting over the coming week. This excerpt is from a story about an exquisite period home in Melbourne, where a gentle ghostly resident felt herself to be very much a part of the family. Hope you enjoy it.

BABYSITTER

The sky had poured its wet fury over the city all day, but inside Elizabeth Clifford’s home, it was as serene and dark as a cathedral at midnight. Her living room was a den of shadow and torchlight since a blackout snuffed out the neighbourhood lights and hushed its televisions, but it was so soothing to sit there, cut off from the world and its constant chatter and glare, that Liz almost wished it would happen more often.

When lights glowed again in their neighbours’ windows, Liz and her husband, David, looked at each other, a bit disappointed that their retreat was coming to an end. They waited, but the room stayed in darkness. Frowning, David went into the hallway to call the electricity company, but Liz just sighed and got comfortable. Curled up on the couch, she sipped wine and gazed out the window, where embers of the day still brightened a corner of the sky.

“What’s wrong with the kids?” asked David, stepping back into the living room. He’d been on the phone for about thirty minutes.

Liz stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“You were in there talking to them.”

“No,” said Liz, with the sense of an insect beginning to crawl slowly up her spine. “I’ve been sitting on the couch the whole time. What did you hear?”

“I heard a woman,” said David, his mouth

A storm over Melbourne. Source Alex Coppel, Herald Sun

opening just enough to let the words out. “I heard a woman saying, ‘It’s okay, everything is going to be okay, relax, turn over and go to sleep.’ All the things a mother would say.”

For three years, Liz had suspected that her family was sharing their home with somebody else, somebody who adored the house as much as they did. Now she knew it.

—Edited extract from Where Spirits Dwell, by Karina Machado. Available August 30.