To ask you help me find this 80’s kids’s book

[Eeksteek]

I have very poor recollection of it, but it bugs the hell out of me!

Boy and a girl. Herefordshire or Welsh borders. Go out looking for mushrooms in the early morning and find patterns on the frost leading to….. something supernatural. In order to prevent discovery by persons un-remembered (presumably evil) they go out with hot towels and melt the frost to hide the pattern. The girl may have been called Jane, and there may have been dragons, but honestly any of it could be suspect after all this time, so hit me with anything close. I probably read it late eighties, so it’s likely a late seventies/early eighties release, as I only read library books.

Why it made such an impression when I remember so little if it, I don’t know. It pops into my head every couple of months, despite the fact that I can’t remember where I put my bank card on the regular! (It’s driving me crackers in a repetitive, low key sort of way, and I’m overwhelmed and having a shit time in real life, so escaping onto kids books is about as good as it gets just now!).

There was one I read as a child which I always thought was called The Aztec Mask and it was about a young girl who runs away and hides in a big mansion house which isn’t lived in but has furniture, food etc and there’s an Aztec mask on a wall which she is fascinated by. I must have the title wrong though because I was never able to find it again.

@ScrambledSmegs
I’ve discovered Alison Prince was the author of haunted children, but it wasn’t that book with the Egyptian curse. However I can’t find comprehensive enough descriptions of all her other books to rule her out as the author.
I keep thinking it sounds like a Stephen King short story, but I know that’s just because I read a lot of his at around the same period.

@FlibbertyGiblets some of that sounds like The Lark the Laurel by Barbara willard. It certainly has a forgotten/secret wedding, a horseback dash to safety, and the heroine's companion who is really on her father's side instead is called Always

Sorry - The Lark and the Laurel

Still no luck with Nicholas Fisk and the dolls as weapons to wipe out humanity story. And having now read some of his stories I'm not sure I'd say I recognize his style, but I'm talking about a story I read over 25, maybe closer to 30, years ago.

Thank you, I shall look the book and author up, so kind.

It's not this is it?

Quote fail, @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair

No, not it as far as I can tell. Thank you though.

No luck with mine either. I shall try all the suggestions though. I love kids books (especially when adulting is so grim)

And Colin gets stuck and has to turn over! I'm mildly claustrophobic, and that gets to me every time.

William Sleator.

A String in the Harp, Nancy Bond?

Set in Wales rather than the Borders but has a brother and sister - Jen

Hmm. That sounds…..familiar. I will try to track down a copy. Thank you.