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ABOUT CECELIA

Before embarking on her writing career, CeceliaAhern completed a degree in Journalism and MediaCommunications. At twenty-one years old, she wroteher first novel, PS I Love You which instantly becamean international bestseller and was adapted into amajor motion picture starring Hilary Swank. Her successive novels, Where Rainbows End, If YouCould See Me Now, A Place Called Here, Thanks forthe Memories, The Gift and The Book of Tomorrowwere all number one bestsellers. Her books are published in forty-six countries and have collectivelysold over ten million copies. Cecelia has also co-created the hit ABC Network comedy seriesSamantha Who? which stars Christina Applegate. In2008 Cecelia won the award for the Best New Writerat the Glamour Women of the Year Awards. Cecelialives in Dublin, Ireland.

To sign up for the exclusive Cecelia Ahern Harper-Collins newsletter and discover all about Cecelia’sbooks, as well as interviews, photographs and muchmore, log onto www.cecelia-ahern.com

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PS – don’t forget to read Cecelia’s other novels:

P.S. I Love YouWhere Rainbows End

If You Could See Me NowA Place Called Here

Thanks for the MemoriesThe Gift

The Book of Tomorrow

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cecelia ahern

�Girl in the Mirror

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HarperCollinsPublishers77–85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2011

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Copyright © Cecelia Ahern 2011Cecelia Ahern asserts the moral right tobe identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this bookis available from the British Library

ISBN: 978 0 00 742503 7

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it arethe work of the

author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Typeset in by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Grangemouth,Stirlingshire

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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For my Fairy Godmother, Sarah Kelly

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‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’tbelieve impossible things.’ (Alice)

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was younger, I alwaysdid it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes

I believed as many as six impossible thingsbefore breakfast.”

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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Girl in the Mirror

July 1992

�

‘Grellie, Grellie, I’m here.’ Lila knocked onthe door, excitedly. She hopped from one

foot to the other and felt her white cotton sock slipfrom above her knee and tickle her skin as itslithered down to rest in an exhausted heap aroundher ankle, like a drunken fireman down a pole.She pulled her underwear out from between hercheeks, blew her feathery hair, which was stuck toher wet lips, and rapped again on the door withher now red knuckles.

‘Why do you call her Grellie?’ the little girlbeside her finally spoke up. Her voice was tinybeside the gigantic front door. She noticed thatand moved closer to Lila for safety. Protectionagainst what she wasn’t sure.

The front garden they had walked through was

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a jungle; untamed and unkempt, not like Sarah’sgarden at all, where their gardener came every twoweeks to make sure everything was symmetricaland perfect, and winked at her whenever he sawher at the window. She would marry him if she wasold enough. But this garden was different. She feltshe’d have gotten lost for ever if she’d stepped offthe randomly placed flagstones that led to the frontdoor. The deep-scented wild flowers stretchedabove her, all nosy to see inside the house asthough they were fighting for space. The trees’branches arched out and contorted in suchdisturbing angles they made Sarah shudder.

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‘Grellie,’ Lila rapped again, impatiently.‘Stop calling her that,’ Sarah said, nervously

then. ‘Why do you keep calling her that?’Lila finally picked up on her nerves and stopped

jittering to look at her curiously. She becamedefensive, her eyes narrowed. ‘She’s my grandmaEllie. I call her Grellie.’

‘Oh. Well maybe she’s not here. Maybe weshould just go.’

Sensing an opportunity to leave, Sarah quicklyspun around and prepared to step onto the firstmouldy flagstone, but her pulse quickened againwhen she heard the bolt of the giant door slideback and creak so loud it was as though they’dawakened a sleeping giant from a hundred-yearslumber.

‘Grellie!’ Lila yelped excitedly, and Sarah said asilent goodbye to the front gate for now.

Lila was embraced warmly by a grey-hairedwoman. The front of her hair was pure white andit was pinned back in a bun. She had a cane in herhand, which was behind Lila’s back as shesqueezed her. The hug looked warm. Inviting.Sarah’s nerves dissolved a little.


‘Well aren’t you an impatient little thing today?’Ellie laughed and peeled herself away from hergrand daughter. ‘I was down the back of the garden,weeding, I could hear you all the way.’

‘I thought you weren’t here, I thought you’dforgotten,’ Lila said breathlessly.

‘Of course I hadn’t forgotten. How could I forgetI’d be meeting your very special friend today. I’vebeen excited to meet her all day.’

Sarah smiled, her cheeks pinked.Ellie’s voice was hard, and she spoke as if

something was catching in her throat, somethingtrapped in there.

Sarah couldn’t help herself listening to thattrapped something. She cleared her throat.

Ellie looked directly at her. Sarah smiled.‘This is Sarah,’ Lila said proudly. ‘Sarah, this is

Grellie.’Sarah didn’t know whether to smile or not. She

did.‘Hi.’ Her voice was tiny again.‘Well hello, Sarah, you’re very welcome. Why

don’t you both come in out of the chill and seewhat I’ve prepared for you.’ She turned and went

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into the house. Lila disappeared after her, hoppingup and down with excitement.

‘Did you make your fairy cakes? With the pinkicing? Did you put the marshmallow on the cake?Did you make the cake? Did you make yourstrawberry jam? I told Sarah you make your ownand she didn’t believe me. Did you make some forthe scones? Do the scones have fruit? I’d loveclotted cream with them if you did.’

Lila gabbered on and on in a giddy hysteriawhile Sarah stood outside the front door listeningto the crash of the waves against the steep cliffsbelow. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was July andschool had just finished for the summer andeveryone had been excited. Class had been takenoutside and all they’d done was read a story andthen had a party on the grass. On the journey toEllie’s house everybody’s car windows had beenopen and Sarah had listened to the mix of musicand chat drift out the windows and fuse in the skyto confuse the passing birds.

But here was different. Here it felt cold. Sarah looked at the gate again; she’d left it

slightly open. A gap large enough for a ginger cat


to creep in. As though sensing her gaze, it stopped,arched its back and looked at her. They bothstayed like that for a while.

‘Sarah, where are you?’Sarah snapped to attention.‘There you are.’ Lila appeared at the front door.

‘What are you doing?’‘I was just …’ Tell her, tell her you want to leave.‘Oh that’s Gingersnap. Grellie!’ Lila shouted at

the top of her lungs.‘I’m not deaf, my dear!’ Ellie called back.‘Gingersnap is back!’ She heard Grellie call something back but

didn’t know what she said but heard the somethingin her throat.

Sarah cleared hers again.‘Come on, wait till you see,’ Lila said, eyes bright.She grabbed Sarah’s hand and pulled her inside

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and they both laughed as Sarah allowed herself tobe tugged. The entrance hall was large. Its vastnesssevered Sarah’s laughter and made her stopsuddenly in her tracks and, in turn, stopped Lila.Sarah looked around. There was a fireplace in thehallway. A chandelier. Dusty, a web or two draped

from one candelabra to another, whichoccasionally shimmered when the sunlight hit it.The floorboards were worn, chipped and uneven,and creaked beneath even the lightest tiptoe. It wasclear to see what they once looked like from theedges of the room. A polished border. Above thedark wooden fireplace stood two lonelycandlesticks devoid of candles. And above them ablack sheet was draped over something to revealonly its brass frame.


‘What’s the picture of?’ Sarah asked, uncertaintyreturning to her.

‘What picture?’ Lila asked confused.‘The one above the fireplace.’‘That’s not a picture, it’s a black sheet,’ Lila said,

as though Sarah were mad.‘What’s beneath the sheet?’Lila grabbed her hand and pulled her again.

‘A mirror. Grellie doesn’t like mirrors. Come on, let me show you around. We can have loads of adventures.’

Lila showed Sarah around the house withexcitement, opening doors and announcing theroom’s purpose and function and possibleadventure before swiftly closing them again and

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running off with Sarah in tow.The house was certainly grand, as Lila had

promised, the ceilings high, the windows coveringfloor to ceiling, lots of knick-knacks, lots of hidingplaces. Lots of dark places. Lila didn’t seem tonotice. To her the house was filled with colour,delight, mystery and her memories. But where Lilasaw light, Sarah saw the shadows, where Lila feltwarmth, Sarah felt the chill. Each new room Sarahsaw was colder than the previous. Each room hadfull walls, or sections of the wall, covered in blacksheets. They leered at Sarah like the Grim Reaper.

They ran past a door and, unusually, Lila didn’tfling it open.

‘What’s in there?’ Sarah asked.Lila stopped running. ‘Oh.’ She leaned over the

banister and looked downstairs to see if Grellie wasnear. They could hear her clattering plates in thekitchen. ‘I’m not allowed in there but I’ll showyou.’

‘No, it’s okay. I don’t want to go in if you’re notallowed,’ Sarah said, backing away.

‘I’ll show you.’ Lila smiled. ‘It’s no big deal. It’sjust a spare room.’


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