Treasure Trail (mxm)

2.5 the garden

The onslaught of new information pounded against my temples. I'd been meandering through the house for the last hour in an attempt to find the best way to start. It had slowly dawned on me that I would need either months upon months to finish, or another pair of eyes or two.

A fair amount of the items I'd seen were outside my range of expertise, or experience as Mr. Thompson would have said. He liked that word, throwing it into every other conversation if he could get away with it.

It was tempting to start with the Great Hall with its wealth of both paintings and sculptures, not even counting the furniture. Sunlight poured in from the tall windows, casting shadows wherever it went. The texture of the room revealed itself in layers, from the straight angles of the chimney piece to the motes of dust in the air. The threads of red silk on the walls shimmered.

Tempting, but also a sure way to get disappointed by the rest of the house. It was better to start with the dark cellars before I worked my way up to the finer quarters. That way, this room would be the final grand piece, a price for my achievement.

The wooden floor whined beneath someone's weight. Turning, I found myself eye to eye with the master of the house. He'd changed into a white T-shirt and graphite gray chinos.

"You've already started?"

I couldn't tell if he was amused or surprised. Perhaps both. "No, I'm doing a quick survey. I estimate this will require quite some months to finish, and I've barely visited half the rooms. If you are in a hurry, I suggest to hire one more person at the very least."

His nose twitched. "One of you is quite enough."

"Very well." In fact, I struggled not to smile. A part of me wanted all of this for myself and enough time to explore each nook and cranny until everything had been touched and felt at least once.

"There's food in the kitchen. The others are already down there."

The others. I'd met a few of them when they'd helped to install me in the east wing. True to his words, Ashleigh had taken me to a room with all the modern amenities anyone could want. Even the bed had been silent beneath pressure.

Madeleine had been the only one to smile, welcoming me with far more enthusiasm than the rest. She'd also revealed that I was to be her new companion for the weekly episodes of the Antiques Roadshow. Randy had groaned in response, while the other guy, whose name I'd already forgotten, ignored the entire exchange.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Around three."

Which meant I'd lost the time. I'd started sometime around twelve. "I confess I have yet to find the kitchen."

Ash waved me along, not saying a word. I followed his footsteps to the first floor, then through a long corridor to a part of the house which must have been the servants' quarters a century ago. Sounds of voices, cutlery and pans betrayed the room before we reached it.

They'd done renovations here as well. It resembled a setting common to many modern apartments with a kitchen to one side and a large dinner table with mismatched chairs on the other. Nothing about it was old at all, apart from the walls and ceiling perhaps.

"There you are. We were all wondering where you'd gone to," Madeleine said, her smile as merry as before. She was pretty in that way I could appreciate, and which other men found attractive. Chestnut brown hair, kind eyes, and a straight nose. Everything in nice proportion. She was also taller than me.

"I walked around the house."

"Oh, the garden is absolutely gorgeous this time of the year," she replied.