Curious to see if Talbot was right, Wade entered the foyer that opened onto a huge two-storey hall and staircase.
‘Perhaps that’s why you’ve never worried about money,’ Hugh whispered as they entered the Great Hall. ‘Because subconsciously you remember you don’t have to.’
But Wade wasn’t listening. The antique weaponry and armour that lined the walls had captured his full attention. ‘My God,’ was all he could say.
‘That’s nothing.’ Hugh drew Wade’s attention to the ceiling, which was one huge painting. It depicted a raging sea battle between Spanish galleons and English frigates in a bygone era.
‘Cadiz Harbour,’ Wade decided.
‘That would be my guess.’
Talbot, having dismissed the staff, moved ahead of Wade to guide him. ‘Allow me to show you to your rooms.’ The butler proceeded up the staircase in front of Wade and Hugh, his son trailing behind with the first load of baggage.
The stairs led to a round chamber that housed the dome. At forty-two feet in diameter and twenty feet in height the room was huge; the dome rose to a circular skylight that added warmth from the light flooding in. Everything therein was curved: the doors and bookcases, the settees, and even the paintings sat snug to the wall. The fireplace opposite the staircase was neatly inset in its own little circular niche.
Though this magnificent chamber was now little more than a picture gallery, Hugh explained that it would once have been the saloon — the place for pre-dinner drinks, music and general chitchat.
‘Andrew will show you to your room, Mr Prescott,’ Talbot advised. ‘If you would follow me, Excellency.’
The butler and his son parted ways, Talbot to the door that led to the west wing, and Andrew to the matching door on the east side of the picture gallery.
‘We simply must do dinner,’ Wade suggested in the most baronial English accent he could muster.
‘I’ll check my schedule,’ replied Hugh, as he pursued Andrew and his luggage.
Wade followed the butler through a hallway that resembled a small room. This had a door at the far end, and a door directly opposite the one they’d just passed through — the latter of which Talbot opened.
‘Should you be so inclined, my Lord, this is the music room,’ the butler advised as Wade entered behind him.
Wade was glad of the information, as there was nothing which indicated that this was the room’s purpose.
‘Your late grandfather, though a great admirer of the arts, proved not so musically gifted himself.’
‘Must run in the family,’ Wade considered out loud.
The room had a superb aspect, however, and he decided on the quiet that it might serve as a good place to set up his computers. The only other doors in the room were to Wade’s left, which was the closest wall to him as he entered. ‘Through here is your drawing room.’ Talbot opened the big double doors to reveal a cozy lounge and dining room all rolled into one.
‘Seems like the wrong sort of furniture. I expected a draftsman’s desk or an easel, maybe?’ Wade planted himself in the most comfortable-looking chair, positioned right by the fireplace.
‘The drawing room was formally known as the withdrawing room, my Lord. So called because it is the place to which you withdraw after dinner. Or, if dining intimately, as you shall wish to do this evening, this room also serves that purpose.’
Wade smiled at the butler’s informative commentary, so artfully delivered. ‘My thoughts exactly, Talbot. It does seem better suited for just that.’ Wade sprang from the chair, eager to see what was next.
The door on the far side of the drawing room granted entrance to the main bedchamber, which, other than the domed gallery, was the most extravagant room Wade had seen so far. The four-poster bed supported a canopied ceiling shrouded in valances and curtains of deep red velvet.
Paintings of love, marriage and seduction graced the walls, and a large bay window overlooked the fountain of nymphs at the front of the house. ‘What a babe trap,’ Wade mumbled.
‘Pardon?’ Talbot missed the comment.
‘Oh, nothing. Is this the bathroom?’ Wade found another door, and opened it to investigate.
‘Your dressing room, my Lord.’ Talbot followed him in.
‘Was he overweight, my grandfather?’ Wade thought the size of the chamber excessive. ‘You could dress a whole army in here.’
‘No, my Lord,’ Talbot smiled. ‘In the early days of this house, dressing rooms served as a place for meetings of the secret variety.’
‘Lovers?’ Wade queried, thinking the bedchamber more appropriate.
‘More like one’s private counsellors and advisors.’ Talbot corrected the misconception. ‘Hence the room’s size to accommodate several men at once, if need be.’
This room also overlooked the fountain, and on the opposite wall to the feature window was a door that led to the bathroom.
This, too, was a room of regal majesty, containing a bath four times larger than one would expect. The polished black slate bath was sunk in a raw black slate floor, and the shower was a room unto itself. Sculptures of beautiful maidens graced all four corners of the bath and large three-tiered candelabras adorned the walls.
‘Your grandfather would only ever bathe by candlelight,’ Talbot explained.
‘Different,’ Wade granted. ‘I’ll have to try it.’
‘After dinner, perhaps?’ Talbot suggested.
The notion struck Wade as appealing. ‘That would be good. Thanks.’
‘As you are no doubt very tired and eager to rest, I shall have dinner for my Lord and his guest served in the drawing room within the hour. Is that pleasing to Your Excellency?’
Wade was cringing again. The formality of his title was really starting to bug him. ‘You read my mind.’
‘Then, may I ask why you frown so?’
‘I’m having a bit of a problem with all this “Your Excellency”, “my Lord” stuff. I suppose addressing me as Wade is out of the question?’
‘Absolutely,’ Talbot advised.
‘How about plain old Sir?’ Wade met him halfway.
‘In private that would be acceptable.’ Talbot acknowledged. ‘Now, if there is nothing else you require of me, Sir, I shall leave you to settle in. Andrew will deliver your luggage presently.’
‘I am a content and happy man.’ Wade gave the butler his leave to go about his business.
It was midday when Talbot delivered a hot breakfast to the new Baron, complete with coffee and the morning papers.
Thanks to a superb three-course meal the night before, Wade did not get the chance to soak in his tub or explore his new house. A few glasses of port by the fire had left him out like a light on the chair in the drawing room.
He was therefore surprised to awake in bed, stripped to his underwear.
Talbot put the breakfast tray aside to place a warm robe around Wade’s shoulders as Wade hoisted himself from beneath the bedcovers. ‘Good morning, Sir. I trust you slept well.’
‘Weird dreams,’ he mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
‘Well, that’s not really surprising, when one considers the upheaval you’ve experienced these past few days.’ Talbot placed the breakfast tray in front of the Baron and moved to draw the curtains open.
Wade reached for the coffee, frowning as he struggled to capture the gist of the dream. ‘I was walking through the house … this house.’ He took a sip of coffee, discovering that the flavour was as euphoric as the aroma. ‘I passed through the round room, down the stairs and out the front door. I went left to the far side of the house …’ He indicated in an easterly direction … ‘and I came to the most amazing place.’
Talbot, knowing the area, took a guess. ‘The gazebo, Sir?’
‘No,’ Wade replied, sounding terribly disillusioned. ‘You mean, it’s not really there?’ He placed his breakfast aside and scrambled out of bed.
‘To what do you refer, Sir?’ Talbot inquired, as Wade tied on his robe and starte
d searching for his trousers. ‘Your clothes are in the dressing room, my Lord.’
‘Uh!’ Wade cautioned, charging into the huge walk-in closet to find the few clothes he’d brought with him unpacked into one small corner.
‘You didn’t have to do that, Talbot. I would have got round to it.’ Wade ripped a pair of jeans from the hanger.
‘I was my pleasure, Sir … believe it or not, I get paid to do such things.’
Then Wade had a horrible thought. ‘You didn’t attempt to unpack my computers, did you?’
‘I’m afraid that kind of technology is far beyond my reckoning,’ Talbot assured him with a smile. ‘Your equipment is awaiting your attention in the music room.’
This statement made Wade stop and think. He hadn’t mentioned his intention of making the music room his office. ‘I am really beginning to think you are telepathic, Talbot.’
The butler shied from the suggestion. ‘Just very good at my job, Sir.’
Wade stopped in at Hugh’s room to conscript him into his little adventure, discovering another drawing room on the way there.
Hugh was propped up in bed with his breakfast and the papers when Wade came striding in.
‘Get up, I want to show you something,’ Wade demanded, eager to keep moving.
Hugh threw his head back and gave a hearty laugh. ‘Not for a million dollars,’ he stated bluntly, and went back to his paper.
‘You’re no fun anymore.’ Wade resorted to the tactic that usually won him his way.
As Hugh had just about polished off breakfast, he allowed himself to be persuaded. ‘Oh, very well. I do pride myself on being fun,’ he said with some sarcasm, but raised himself all the same.
Once Wade had rushed Hugh through dressing, to no great effect, they headed down the staircase, through the Great Hall and out the front door.
‘Speaking of strange dreams, I must say that fountain featured heavily in mine,’ Hugh confessed, as they descended the stairs towards it.
‘Half your luck.’ Wade veered to the left. ‘All I got was this great, huge cat! At least, I think it was a cat. As large as a medium-sized mutt it was, with these weird lookin’ ears that kind of folded over.’
‘That’s interesting,’ mused Hugh. ‘The cat is said to represent your intuitive or psychic aspect.’
‘Yeah? Well, my psychic aspect doesn’t like me very much. It took a swing at me.’ Wade’s eyes parted wide as he recalled the vision. ‘All puffed up, it was … like someone had shoved its tail in an electric socket.’
‘Why did it attack you?’
‘Oh no!’ Wade groaned, as they cleared the house and he spied a gazebo where the wondrous dwelling had been in his dream. ‘This wasn’t here … it was an octagonal temple thing, that housed a large circular room.’
‘Was the room furnished?’
‘I don’t know, I never got to see the inside. The cat was blocking the entrance.’ Wade strode towards the small gazebo that, although beautiful, was no comparison to the structure he’d imagined.
‘Look here.’ Hugh was standing before the gazebo’s central pillar, staring at a plaque that was inset in it. ‘Erected in loving memory of my grandfather, John, the sixth Baron Ashby, who perished in the Temple fire of 1779. His passion for art and thirst for knowledge were equalled only by his devotion to those he loved. John is sorely missed.’
‘A chapter house of the occult, some would have you believe, my Baron.’
Wade spun around to find Dougal, the gardener.
‘The sixth Baron referred to it as his temple of knowledge. His private library was beneath the chapter house, you see, and that’s where the fire started. Once it got hold of the books, well … poof! It is said the Baron died attempting to save the books.’ Dougal concluded the yarn, which he’d no doubt perfected for the summer tourists.
‘That’s all very interesting, Dougal, but tell me … is there a painting of the temple anywhere?’
Dougal had to think a moment, as he never had much cause to roam inside the manor. ‘I do believe there is one in the long gallery, my Baron.’
‘Oh.’ Wade was none the wiser. ‘Well, thanks for the history lesson, Dougal.’
‘Anytime, my Lord.’ The old fellow went back to his gardens.
‘Well, how about that.’ Hugh was gazing back at the house, where a long open walkway on ground level supported an enclosed structure above. ‘I’ll bet that’s the long gallery up there,’ Hugh advised Wade. ‘In which case, we’ll find it goes to the end of my drawing room.’
‘Well, maybe we can get through this way.’ Wade was off, keen to explore. ‘Let’s try the tower.’
But as they entered the pillared walkway they were diverted from their course. The thick glass walls on the other side of the walk enclosed a whole host of plant life — and bird life, too, by the sound of it.
Wade opened the French doors that led inside. One storey up, the glasshouse roof slanted on all sides to meet in a central pinnacle that formed a glass pyramid.
‘It’s a greenhouse cum aviary …’ Hugh closed the doors quickly behind them.
‘I can see that.’ Wade observed the many exotic and colourful species of bird living it up in the carefully-tended paradise.
‘This house is really something extraordinary.’ Hugh gazed up through the glass roof to the rooms on the second floor, where large bay windows looked down upon the aviary gardens on two sides. ‘I find it unbelievable that you, who have no appreciation for anything historical, should inherit this. Perhaps there was a mix-up on the ship on the way to Australia and I am really the Baron.’
‘I have to admit, it does seem as if the cosmos got its lines crossed somewhere,’ Wade agreed.
The path led to a T-junction, where a cafe setting was placed in a small, paved clearing.
‘Left or right?’ Hugh asked the navigator, as both ways led to double French doors.
‘I should have asked for a map.’ Wade shrugged, heading left.
‘Enter, the library,’ Hugh announced with glee, going weak in the knees as he beheld the rows of books running from floor to ceiling. The room also had a mezzanine level.
‘Check this out.’ Wade took hold of a ladder and slid it along a track until it aligned with the gap in the wooden railing above. ‘This way.’ Wade proceeded up the sturdy wooden steps to the next level.’
‘Have you no soul, man. Just look at these works of art, both painted and written.’ He perused the titles on the shelves, some of which Hugh had only dreamed of reading. ‘This room alone must be worth a king’s ransom.’
‘Later, Hugh.’ Wade was off towards the tower that would, he hoped, grant him entry to the long gallery.
The tower room was completely enclosed with stairs leading down to a door located halfway down the stairwell.
‘That will lead back down to the outside walkway.’ Hugh caught up to his friend in the tower.
‘So this must lead,’ Wade opened the door, ‘to the long, long, long gallery,’ he decided, upon viewing it.
This enormous space also served as a games room, for chess boards and the like were set ready to play on the tables by the windows. The highlight of the room, in Wade’s eyes, was positioned halfway down the gallery in front of the fireplace.
‘A pool table!’ Wade cried in rapture, then mumbled praise to God as he hurried over to admire it more closely. ‘Just look at this baby — chunky, full size, with a surface as level and smooth as they come.’ Wade took up the cue to knock a couple of balls around the table. But, as he leaned forward to take his shot, a painting in the background caught his eye. ‘That’s it, that’s the place I saw.’
The plate read: TEMPLE OF KNOWLEDGE, SPRING, 1778.
‘The year before the fire,’ Hugh pointed out.
‘But the detail is exactly as I saw it, not a feature out of place.’ Wade turned pale. This was really freaking him out.
‘Hang about,’ Hugh interrupted to calm him down. ‘You could have seen this picture when you
were a child.’
‘You’re right.’ Wade was much relieved to have a rational explanation until his logic shot a hole in the theory. ‘So how did I know where the temple was located?’
‘Who knows. The human mind is an amazing and complex instrument.’ Hugh waved it off, and led Wade away from the cause of his dismay. ‘But this much is painfully obvious … we need to set up your computer, my friend. You get so weird when you don’t get your fix.’
‘Absolutely.’ Wade shook off the scare. ‘And I don’t suppose you’ve spied a stereo, VCR or television anywhere?’
‘Not as such,’ Hugh informed him. ‘But never mind, once your modem is connected up, we can go shopping.’
4
The Hidden Benefits
By breakfast the next day, Wade and Hugh were able to sit up in their own beds and talk to each other as they ate, via their laptop computers.
Wade also had a top-of-the-line Macintosh and all the accompanying hardware, down to his own CD burner. All this desktop equipment had now transformed the music room into a graphics studio; fantastic visual images were Wade’s forte. He constructed websites, logos and suchlike to earn a living, but what he really wanted to do was create interactive games. Trouble was, he couldn’t seem to come up with a concept that hadn’t been done a thousand times before.
‘Talbot has just handed me a ghastly-looking brochure on the house. I’ll have to design a new one,’ Wade informed Hugh, who could be seen sipping coffee on the screen of the laptop positioned on the bed beside Wade.
‘Good morning, Talbot.’ Hugh gave him a wave.
‘And a good morning to you, Mr Prescott.’
‘What do you think of our little setup?’ Hugh inquired.
‘Oh, it’s most impressive, Sir,’ Talbot conceded dryly, ‘I feel just like Dr Spock.’
Wade had opened out the brochure of the house, and sat observing a floor plan of Ashby. ‘According to this, there are still several rooms we haven’t discovered yet.’
‘Good.’ Hugh was delighted. ‘I’ll be along soon. Now that you’ve had your electronics fix, it should be safe to take you exploring. No strange dreams last night?’
The Alchemist's Key Page 3