By Suzanne Holderness
When the summer holiday started, I thought it was going to the most boring time possible - stuck with my cousin Alicia all day in the same house. I love my Grandma and Grandpa, but the thought of having to play games with a girl two years older than me made me feel icky. And as for big cousin Alicia, I think the fact her dad’s not going to be the next Baronet made her a little bit standoffish, even with me.
As I discovered, however, it was actually the most fantastic time I have ever had - and it was all thanks to some new friends that I made. The first was a girl called Heidi that Alicia had been writing to for a few years. Grandma Holderness had offered to pay for her to come and spend the summer with us, so when this bright eyed girl with short blonde hair and a funny accent turned up with Alicia on the first day, I liked her immediately.
Alicia had been in a funny mood the last few times I saw her, ever since her house was robbed, but Heidi seemed right at home when we met at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, She told me all about her friends in the USA, and how she lived there, but she kept the best secrets for later - and it was two new friends that helped her to reveal them.
I met them on the second week of the holidays, when their grandma, Granny Craig as Grandma said to call her, brought them to Holderness Manor where Grandma and Grandpa live. When they came into the playroom, I looked at the first girl. She was the same age as me, with long blonde hair, but she smiled as she told me her name was Cassie and we started talking.
The other girl, her sister, was called Jenny, and it turned out she knew Alicia. I got the feeling they were not real friends, especially when I told them what Grandma had said about something that happened to them just before the holidays started.
That was the beginning of the greatest summer ever.
Cassie told me what had happened to them, and I asked if they could show me what it was like - to be tied up. Cassie tied my hands behind my back, and then to my waist, and followed up by tying my ankles together. I actually liked it - a lot, but when I asked Alicia if she wanted to play she said no. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was stills cared after what had happened to her.
So Cassie tied Jenny up, and then Heidi tied up Cassie. It turned out she was something of an expert - we heard all the tales later. That day, however, took a really special turn when we got free, and Jenny and Cassie showed Heidi how they had been tied.
Alicia had slipped out while they were doing this, to see when lunch was, but she came back with a man dressed in black, with a mask covering his head. He had kind eyes, and a nice smile, but he was actually a robber, who had come to steal some of Grandma and Grandpa’s things. He was a nice man, though, who joked as he examined Heidi, and the proceeded to tie all four of us up the same way.
The really funny thing was that Cassie was encouraging him, so that by the time her left all five of us were on our tummies, with ropes so securely tied around us that we had no chance of moving. We could not talk either - our mouths were stuffed with cloth, a strip if very strong sticking plaster over our lips and a scarf tied so tightly over that it pressed into my cheeks. We could not move our heads either =- the scarf was tied so that we could not do that.
I should have been scared, but I wasn’t. Cassie wasn’t, Jenny wasn’t, Heidi wasn’t. Ali - Alicia was a little scared, but there was nothing she could do about it. We were like that for a while, before Mrs Bridges, who looks after the house for Grandma, found us and freed us.
After that, nothing about the holiday was the same. As we talked downstairs, I saw Alicia talking to Heidi, and almost every day after that I spent at least in part tied up and gagged.
It turned out Alicia asked Heidi top teach her how to tie up someone - at the time I thought it was because he wanted to beat her own fears. She needed someone to practice on - and that someone was me. The only time that did not happen was the once or twice a week we spent with Jenny and Cassie at their house. Otherwise, Alicia would practise tying my arms and legs together as Heidi watched and gave her hints.
At first she wasn’t very good, but I played along. She got better however, so that before long I would be like a salami on the bed, unable to move or talk as she gagged me with scarves, with tape, with plaster - with just about everything.
I asked if I could tie her up as well, but she kept saying no. Heidi saw that as well, so when Alicia would be busy with Grandma in the afternoon she started to teach me a few tricks as well - and I found a willing practice partner in Cassie when we spent time at her house.
She was great, willing to let me tie her as she tied me in all sorts of ways. And she even allowed me to practise on her, so that I got pretty good at it, even if I say so myself.
I was even there when Mister Craig found out about the games. I would be petrified to tell my parents, but he just told us it was all right if we asked permission first. He even tied us together, to show he was good at it as well. Then Jenny turned up, and he tied her 0- and then Mrs Craig. Granny Craig joined in as well. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I had to go. It was only the next week that I heard all about the amazing day they had spent with their parents and granny.
Mind you, the weekend they stayed with us was just as amazing, if only to see big brave Alicia have the most amazing hissy fit. She had tricked Heidi into challenging Jenny to an escape contest, after she had tied Cassie up and Jenny me. What made it even more exciting was that we were all dressed in our best dresses - Grandma and Grandpa had invited the Craigs to come to dinner, and I asked if ti could be a more formal one. I really wanted to see Cassie’s wedding dress.
Anyway, once we were all bound and gagged, with lovely white tape over our mouths and heads, Alicia just let rip. She called Jenny and Cassie all sorts of names, and accused them of making me one of them, of not honouring the Holderness name, and more sins than I had heard of at High Chapel. I mean, I am proud of being a Holderness, but this was too much.
Fortunately, Grandma showed up and made Alicia stop, after which she cried and cried and cried. I think she had been keeping a lot of things to herself, and they all came out that day. Once she had stopped, Grandma and Granny Craig told Heidi, Cassie and me to hop to our bedroom for the night. That was a new experience - I had only learnt to do that that night - but I got very good at it very quickly. When Jenny and Alicia eventually tried to join us, we hopped right past them and headed downstairs for supper.
That night Grandma told us the legend of the Holderness Shadow - a real family ghost story. I didn’t believe it - not then, but we all had a good night’s sleep and then went for a picnic the next day, where we were gagged and played all sorts of games, until ti was time for them to go.
After that Alicia was a lot nicer, and we all played the games with each other, taking turns to tie each other up rather than me been the dummy every time. We also played more openly at Grandma’s house - it turned out she and Granny Craig used to play the same sort of games as well.
Last week we went to dinner at the Craig house - well, that was the plan, but instead we walked in on a gang of men who had tied up and gagged not only Jenny, Cassie and Granny Craig, but also Mrs Craig and their aunts, Miss Craig and Mrs Brown. We were marched upstairs, but the gang thought ti would be enough to tie our wrists and ankles, and gag us with one strip of tape. After the training Alicia and I had this summer, and all the experience of Heidi, Jenny and Cassie?
Twice w escaped, twice they tried to bind us tighter, until eventually they gave in and tied us a securely as the grownups. I was tied to Alicia, but as we sat there I could have sworn I saw a shadow move in the room. I thought of Grandma’s story, but it just could not be true - could it?
Anyway, Grandma eventually came to the rescue, and we learnt a whole new set of secrets about the Craigs. I can’t write them down here, but let’s just say they have as much history as we in the Holderness family do. I also saw how brave and fearless Grandma is, and how much fun it can be with Cassie - even if the others were a littel upset. Miss Craig gave me a big hug anyway.
So that’s how I spent my summer - mainly tied up and gagged, but also making great new friends, learning new things and discovering my cousin isn’t that bad a person. It’s coming to an end, though - I start school again next week, and Heidi leaves this weekend to go back to the USA. I hope I get to see Cassie and Jenny regularly after this, but I still have to ask Grandma and Grandpa, not to mention Mother and Father, about that.
Still, it has been a great time.
“Suzanne? It’s time for supper - come down please.”
“Coming Grandma,” I called from the room as I looked at what I had written in my diary. I really did wonder what would happen if I handed this in as my holiday homework, but I had that essay already written.
I was spending the night at the Manor - tomorrow was Friday, and then I had to go home for school. As I locked my diary and hid it in my bag, I wished Heidi and Alicia were there that night as well. They weren’t - Uncle Simon and Aunt Anne had taken them out for a farewell dinner for Heidi. So I was here, on my own, with Grandma, Grandpa and Mister and Mrs Bridges for company.
At least tomorrow I would get to see Cassie - we had an invitation to spend the day with them.
I put on a green dressing gown and a pair of slippers and walked down the stairs. Granma and Grandpa were in the front room drinking from a cup as I sat down and Mrs Bridges handed me a mug of cocoa.
“You need a good night’s sleep, Suzanne,” Grandma said as she looked at me, “We have an early start in the morning.”
“Very well, Grandma,” I said as I sipped my drink, the warm liquid helping me to feel very very tired. I wanted to be bright and awake for the visit tomorrow - Cassie had promised big surprises.
I gave Grandma and Grandpa a good night hug, and made my way up to my bedroom, taking off my dressing gown and slippers and lying on the bed in my white nightie. As I drifted off to sleep, I wondered what the next day would bring...
I felt the light rather than saw it, and opened my eyes to see what was going on. It was still dark, but there was indeed a bright torch shining in my eyes. Before I could say anything, however, I felt a gloved hand been placed over my mouth, and heard a voice that sounded like Grandpa saying “Sit up and keep quiet.”
I did as I was asked, and felt my hands been taken behind my back, something sticky and stretchy been wrapped round my wrists as I felt them been ted tightly together. The hand was taken from my mouth, but before I could say anything a strip of something was pushed down over my mouth. IT took me a few minutes to realise ti was the brown fabric plaster, as it held my lips tightly together.
Whoever was shin the light in my eyes stood back as I was made to stand up, and my dressing gown put over my shoulders. They mad me walk out of the room, down the corridor and the stairs, and out into the night air. I could see a thin strip of red on the horizon where the sun was starting to come up, but before I could look at it the side of a van opened up and I was helped inside.
Grandma and Mrs Bridges ere sat by the side of the van, looking at me as I was made to sit next to them and my ankles taped together with the brown tape. They also had their hands behind their backs, and their ankles taped, with a die strip of plaster over their mouths.
“Whtsgnngnnn,” I mumbled to Grandma, but she just shook her head. As I looked where her eyes were looking, I saw a woman sitting there, dressed in a black jumper and trousers with a balaclava over her head. She put her fingers to her lips as I heard an engine starting and we were driven off - somewhere.