by Ali McNamara
‘It matters not a jot to me. I’m just saying that even if your son was talking to ghosts, you would be the last person he’d want to talk to about it because there’s no way you’d believe in them.’
He’s right, of course: I don’t believe in anything like that – I never have. But I don’t like the suggestion that Charlie can’t talk to me about anything if he wants to.
‘Do you believe in the supernatural, then?’ I ask.
‘Not really. But I’ve worked in enough old buildings to know that there’re things that go on in them that can’t always be explained.’
‘Exactly. There’s always a rational explanation to everything, even if you don’t always know what it is,’ I reply, nodding to make my point. ‘And let me assure you that if my son needs to talk he knows he can come to me about anything.’
‘Sorry,’ Tom apologises. ‘The last thing I wanted to do was offend my new boss. Not making a great impression on my first day, am I?’
Actually, Tom is making a very different impression on me right now. With his foot perched up on the log he’s in the process of chopping, his arm resting on his axe, and sweat glistening off him from his forehead down into his open-necked shirt so I can just see it dampening down the beginnings of his chest hair, I feel anything but offended by him.
I swallow hard. This is not how I want to feel about any of my staff – especially not on my first day.
‘It’s fine,’ I tell him, quickly averting my eyes. ‘No harm done. Oh, here comes Joey,’ I say, relieved to see Joey travelling across one of the great lawns that surround the castle on a quad bike.
‘What oh, boss!’ he says as he pulls up next to us. ‘I didn’t expect to find you out here this morning.’
‘I came to see how Tom was doing on his first day,’ I reply hurriedly, my face flushing, much to my annoyance.
‘Course you did.’ Joey winks at me. ‘Tom mate, what ya doing chopping wood with that rusty old thing?’ He points at the axe in Tom’s hand.
‘It’s what Arthur gave me,’ Tom says, looking at the axe. ‘It could do with a good sharpen, I reckon.’
‘It could do with the chop – get it: chop!’ Joey says, grinning with glee at his own joke. ‘Ah, never mind,’ he says when we don’t laugh. ‘This is what we usually chop the fallen trees up with.’ He lifts a chainsaw from the back of the quad bike’s trailer. ‘Arthur should have given you this.’
Tom smiles ruefully at the petrol-powered chainsaw in Joey’s arms. ‘Yeah, I bet he should.’
‘Sorry,’ I tell him. ‘I did say you’d have to work hard to impress Arthur, didn’t I? I guess this was just his idea of a little joke.’
‘If you believe that, Amelia,’ Tom says, turning to me now, ‘then you really won’t have any trouble believing in a few ghosts.’
‘And just who is this?’ I ask as Charlie bounds across the castle courtyard later with a small hairy dog at his side.
‘This is Chester; he’s the castle’s dog,’ Charlie explains, bending down to fuss the hound.
‘He belonged to the last Earl,’ Arthur explains. ‘Dorothy and I have been looking after him at our cottage since the Earl died. He’s been a forlorn little fella for the last few months, which is to be expected, I suppose, but he cheered up no end this morning when he met your Charlie.’
Arthur really has taken Charlie under his wing today. After I’d checked on Tom, I’d spent the rest of the morning in the office with Tiffany learning how the castle runs on a day-to-day basis. There’s a lot more to it than I’d imagined, but surprisingly, Tiffany proved to be a very thorough and knowledgeable teacher. I’d learned about the staff and how over the years they’d been reduced bit by bit, until all that was left was the skeleton crew that lived at the castle today. When required there was a small team of temporary helpers that they called upon from the village – mainly retired residents who had worked at the castle in the past.
I’d learned about how costly it is to run the place. Even though a lot of the rooms aren’t in use any more, the electricity costs alone are staggering, and the maintenance that has to be undertaken simply to keep the castle walls from crumbling around us is so complex that in the last year alone seven different tradesmen had been brought in just to prevent the castle from becoming a ruin of the future.
If I’d been daunted before about simply coming to live here, all this new information is only adding to my already burdened shoulders.
But I try to shake some of that burden away as I bend down to fuss over Charlie’s new friend. ‘I always knew there would be a dog involved in all this,’ I murmur, stroking him under the chin. Chester eagerly licks my hand in return.
‘Oh, who’s that?’ I ask as I stand up again and notice a strange couple wandering across the courtyard.
‘Just visitors,’ Arthur says. ‘We’re open to the public again today, aren’t we?’
‘Of course we are; I completely forgot.’
I watch the couple for a moment as they wander aimlessly around.
‘You’ll get used to it,’ Arthur says. ‘We don’t get too many visitors at this time of the year – at any time of the year, really.’
‘I’ll be right back,’ I say to Arthur and Charlie, and I sprint across the gravel towards the couple.
‘Hello!’ I call cheerily as I approach them. ‘How are you today?’
The woman looks at me suspiciously from under the hood of her raincoat, and the man nods politely.
‘I’m Amelia Ha . . . Chesterford,’ I correct myself. ‘Welcome to Chesterford Castle, how are you finding your trip today?’
‘Fine, thank you,’ the man says at the same time as the woman replies: ‘It’s okay, I suppose.’
‘Is there anything we could improve on?’
‘You could make it a bit cheaper, for one thing,’ the woman says grimly. ‘There’s not much to see when you get through them gates is there, Brian?’
Brian shakes his head.
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,’ I apologise. ‘What would you like to see more of?’
‘It’s not the amount of things as such,’ Brian says, almost apologetically, ‘more the quality of things on show. Many are in quite a shabby condition, if you don’t mind me saying. And we’ve noticed quite a lot of dust, haven’t we, Marjory?’
‘Yes, dust,’ Marjory repeats. ‘Antiques ageing I can excuse, but a quick flick with a feather duster once in a while would get rid of a little bit of dust; there’s no excuse for shoddy housekeeping, even in somewhere as big as this.’
‘Of course.’ I nod, glad Dorothy can’t hear this. ‘I’m actually quite new here, so I haven’t had time to address these small, but necessary things,’ I add when Marjory glares at me. ‘But believe me, I will. In the meantime, may I offer you free return passes to the castle in six months by means of an apology, by which time I intend to have everything running ship shape, or is that castle shape!’ I smile, hoping to lighten their mood.
But Marjory looks unimpressed. ‘We won’t be on holiday in six months, will we? What good are free passes then?’
‘It’s very kind of you,’ Brian says, attempting to guide Marjory away. ‘Perhaps we will come back and see you again, then? Good luck with your endeavours. From what I’ve seen this morning, you’re going to need it.’
‘I knew I should have believed those TripAdvisor reviews,’ I hear Marjory grumble as they head towards the stone steps that lead to the top of the ruined tower. ‘But you said it would be all right. There’s not even a tea shop, and that gift shop is an absolute joke . . . ’
I walk desolately back to Arthur, Charlie and Chester.
‘What did you go and do that for?’ Arthur asks, glancing after the departing couple ‘Never ask them what they think. Best to leave them well alone, I find.’
‘But why? If we don’t know what our visitors think, how can we know what to improve on?’
‘We don’t have the money for improving,’ Arthur states. ‘Haven’t you looked at
the books yet?’
‘Tiffany showed me some figures this morning, but there must be something we can do. I do have a little fund I can dip into if needed . . . ’
‘What little fund?’ Arthur asks suspiciously.
‘Along with the castle,’ I explain, ‘I was left some money in a private bank account. Not a never-ending amount of money,’ I hastily add. ‘But apparently the last Earl was quite frugal with his cash, which is probably why the castle itself is in a bit of a state.’
‘Dorothy said he was a tight-fisted so-and-so,’ Charlie pipes up from where he’s playing fetch with Chester. ‘What does that mean exactly?’
‘It means he was careful when it came to spending money,’ I tell him quickly, blushing. ‘But it also means that as a result I do have some funds I can use to improve things here,’ I tell Arthur, ‘and the first thing we’re going to do with that money is hire extra staff to allow us to run things more efficiently on a day-to-day basis.’
‘You’ve already gone and hired that antiques dealer fella,’ Arthur says gruffly. ‘Isn’t that enough?’
‘Tom is a furniture restorer, not an antiques dealer; plus I haven’t hired him, he’s on trial. A fair trial, too.’ I look knowingly at Arthur. ‘Stop making things harder for him than they need be – I saw the axe this morning, Arthur; that was hardly fair, now, was it?’
‘It’s how we used to chop wood,’ Arthur says, smiling smugly. ‘If it was good enough for my father then it’s good enough for him.’
I shake my head. ‘I think Tom could be a great help to us if we give him a chance. He’s certainly enthusiastic, and I think that’s just what this castle needs to push it into the twenty-first century: a bit of enthusiasm, passion and above all hope.’
Eleven
‘So that’s what I propose to do,’ I announce as I stand awkwardly at the head of the scrubbed wooden kitchen table, addressing the others. ‘I do hope you all agree with me. Now, has anyone got anything they wish to say, or even suggest? If this is going to work then I think we all need to pull together as a team to make Chesterford Castle the success it deserves to be.’
There’s silence around the table, as everyone glances at anything rather than at me.
We’ve been at Chesterford for a few days now, and in that time I’ve learned even more about the castle and how it presently runs. Actually, survives might be a better word to describe the state the castle is currently in – it really is hanging by an ancient thread like the ones that bind its huge tapestries together. So during the evenings when Charlie has gone to bed, I’ve sat up in my tower thinking, writing notes and eventually coming up with my own rescue plan, which this morning I’m tentatively sharing with the staff.
‘Shall I put the kettle on?’ Dorothy suggests, breaking the silence. She looks longingly at her Aga cooker.
Murmurs of ‘yes please’ and ‘I’d love a cuppa’ flow around the room.
‘Righty-ho, then.’ She gets up and scurries past the scrubbed wooden cupboards to claim a huge black kettle into which she proceeds to pour fresh water.
‘Someone must have something to say?’ I look round the table at the others. I’d expected many things to happen once I’d shared my plans, but silence wasn’t one of them.
‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Tom says from where he casually sits cross-legged on one of the wooden chairs.
‘You would, you just want to get on her good side,’ Arthur grumbles.
‘What’s the problem, Arthur?’ I ask. ‘You must know we need more staff.’
‘We’ve done all right just us for the last year or two, haven’t we?’ he asks, looking around at the others. ‘Why do we need to bring strangers in now?’
‘They won’t be strangers, Arthur. I intend to recruit from the village if we can. You already have some people that help you out occasionally, don’t you?’
‘The boss is right, Arthur,’ Joey says. ‘I’ve been saying for ages we need someone to help us out in the grounds. Just having Tom here has cut my workload by half in the last few days.’
‘Anything to shirk a bit of hard work,’ Arthur says grudgingly.
‘If I had some extra help with the cleaning we could have the whole castle looking neat and shiny as a new pin in days,’ Dorothy says, turning from the counter where she’s been arranging some cups and saucers ready for the tea. ‘I try my best,’ she says to me, ‘but there’re a lot of rooms here.’
‘I know, Dorothy; I think you’ve done amazingly well to keep it in such good shape on your own.’
Dorothy flushes a little and turns proudly back to her teacups.
‘I’m more than happy to continue working in the office,’ Tiffany says, ‘but I’d quite like to get involved in the practical side of running the castle too, if there was a chance.’
‘We’ll need someone to run the new gift shop,’ I say, latching on to this tiny bit of enthusiasm immediately. ‘I’d like it to offer something for everyone, so it would be quite the challenge to set up. Would that be something you might be interested in, Tiffany?’
‘Ooh, I’d love to!’ Tiffany says, grinning. ‘I’ve wanted to run my own shop since I was little, and I’d have time to do it – as you saw the other day, I don’t always have a full day’s work in that office.’
She glances nervously at Arthur.
‘Tiffany has brought up a good point,’ I say to the others. ‘Like I just said to Dorothy, you’ve all done amazingly well covering all these various jobs on your own up to this point. But now I think we need to specialise a little bit more, so that the jobs we do we can all do really well, and that will only reflect positively on the castle. So if there’s something you fancy specialising in, now is the time to shout.’ There’s silence again. ‘Joey?’ I ask, turning to him. ‘What would you like to do?’
It’s Joey’s turn to glance hesitantly at Arthur.
Arthur gives him a knowing look.
‘I’m quite happy working with King Arthur over there,’ he says, to Arthur’s immense pleasure.
‘But what is your actual job description?’
‘General dogsbody, I reckon.’ Joey grins.
‘Okay . . . ’ I say, trying to remain patient. ‘But is there any particular part of what you do here you like best?’
‘I quite like doing the gardening. Anything outdoor is always preferable to being inside for me.’
‘Right, head groundsman it is, then,’ I tell him instantly.
‘What? Just like that?’ Joey looks astonished.
‘Just like that. I’ll leave it with you to hire some staff to help you out. I’m guessing you’ll need more seasonal staff during the summer months, but can maybe make do with slightly less help during the winter?’
Joey nods slowly. ‘Yeah, that’s right. But what about Arthur?’ He nods in Arthur’s direction. ‘Won’t I be stepping on his toes?’
‘Nope, not at all. Arthur will still be in overall charge. I’d like to promote you to general manager, if that’s all right, Arthur? Your job will be to oversee all aspects of the castle on a daily basis.’
‘Ooh, Arthur,’ Dorothy says proudly, ‘it’ll be like the old days when you were butler and all the staff looked up to you.’
Arthur shrugs. ‘Don’t be silly, woman. It could never be like that any more; things have changed too much.’
I know he’s partly referring to me, but I choose to pretend I don’t.
‘Arthur’s right, things have changed,’ I insist, seizing the chance. ‘Chesterford Castle must move with the times to have a chance of surviving in the future. But if we can move forward alongside it together as a team, in a spirit of hard work, understanding and above all enjoyment at this new challenge we have ahead, we can not only help the castle to survive, but I know we can make Chesterford Castle the number one tourist destination in Northumberland!’
*
‘That was quite a speech you made back there,’ Tom says as everyone exits the kitchen chattering excitedly about their new
roles, even Dorothy, aka our new tea room manager. When asked if she knew anyone in the village who might like to run the new tea room, Dorothy had replied adamantly that no food was going to be served in this castle unless she was the person in charge of serving it. So the job was hers, and I’d tasked her with finding some staff to help her out with her new role.
‘Thanks. I don’t know where most of it came from, actually. I’ve never really addressed a room full of people like that before.’
‘You wouldn’t know it. You seemed to say all the right things to keep everyone happy.’
‘Everyone except Arthur.’
‘He’ll come round. If he doesn’t want to be general manager, you can always take him on as a full-time nanny!’
I smile; Charlie had yet again gone off happily with Arthur and Chester – this time to investigate some stonework that’s become loose on one of the castle’s exterior walls.
I felt a bit guilty letting Arthur look after Charlie again, but both of them seemed to enjoy spending time with each other. When I’d confessed to Dorothy that I thought I might be burdening Arthur with this role, she’d told me not to worry. Apparently, they’d never been blessed with any children, so Arthur was revelling in his new role of teacher and guardian to the young Earl.
I’d tried not to wince too visibly when she’d called Charlie that. I was beginning to understand they couldn’t help it. Dorothy and Arthur had lived in this castle all their lives; they were programmed to be subservient to their bosses. They simply didn’t know a different way.
‘It’s a relief, I must say,’ I tell Tom as we walk together towards Tom’s latest job. He was to clean all the castle’s silverware, beginning in the Great Hall with the suits of armour and all the weaponry.
I’m pretty sure this wasn’t exactly what Dorothy had meant when she’d asked Tom to clean the silver, but Arthur had insisted that this needed doing first.
‘After that first day in the tower, I’d wondered how I was going to keep an eye on him all the time. It won’t be too bad once he starts at his new school next week, but until then, I need eyes like a hawk!’