“I’ve got a flashlight in the car,” Edward said. “I’ll run out and get it.”
Returning with the light, Edward descended the ladder. Gaining the floor, he looked up at Kim and asked her if she was coming down.
“Do I have to?” she questioned half in jest. She came down the ladder and stood next to him.
“Cold, damp, and musty,” Edward said.
“Well said,” Kim remarked. “So what are we doing here?”
The cellar was small. It only comprised the area beneath the kitchen. The walls were flat fieldstone with little mortar. The floor was dirt. Against the back wall was a series of bins made with stone or wood sides. Edward walked over and shined the light in several of them. Kim stayed close at his side.
“You were right,” Edward said. “Here’s where the food was kept.”
“What kind of food, do you suppose?” Kim asked.
“Stuff like apples, corn, wheat, and rye,” Edward said. “Maybe dairy products as well. The flitches of bacon were hung up, most likely in the lean-to.”
“Interesting,” Kim said without enthusiasm. “Have you seen enough?”
Edward leaned into one of the bins and scratched up some of the hard-packed dirt. He felt it between his fingers. “The dirt is damp,” he said. “I’m certainly no botanist, but I’d wager it would be great for growing Claviceps purpurea.
Intrigued, Kim asked if it could be proven.
Edward shrugged. “Possibly,” he said. “I suppose it would depend on whether Claviceps spores could be found. If we could take some samples I could have a botanist friend take a look at it.”
“I imagine we could find some containers in the castle,” Kim suggested.
“Let’s do it,” Edward said.
Leaving the old house, they headed for the castle. Since it was such a beautiful day they walked. The grass was knee-high. Grasshoppers and other harmless insects flitted about them.
“Every so often I can see water through the trees,” Edward commented.
“That’s the Danvers River,” Kim said. “There was a time when the field went all the way to the water’s edge.”
The closer they got to the castle the more awed Edward became with the building. “This place is even bigger than I had originally thought,” he said. “My word, it even has a fake moat.”
“I was told it was inspired by Chambord in France,” Kim said. “It’s shaped like the letter U, with guest quarters in one wing and servants’ in the other.”
They crossed a bridge over the dry moat. While Edward admired the gothic details of the doorway, Kim struggled with the keys just as she’d done at the old house. There were a dozen keys on the ring. Finally one opened the door.
They passed through an oak-paneled entry hall and then through an arch leading into the great room. It was a room of monumental size with a two-story ceiling and gothic fireplaces at either end. Between cathedral-sized windows on the far wall rose a grand staircase. A stained-glass rose window at the head of the stairs filled the room with a peculiar pale yellow light.
Edward let out a half-groan half-laugh. “This is incredible,” he said in awe. “I had no idea it was still furnished.”
“Nothing has been touched,” Kim said.
“When did your grandfather die?” Edward asked. ‘ This decor looks as if someone left on extended vacation in the nineteen twenties.”
“He died just this past spring,” Kim said. “But he was an eccentric man, especially after his wife died almost forty years ago. I doubt if he changed anything in the house from when his parents occupied it. It was his father who built it.”
Edward wandered into the room while his eyes played over the profusion of furniture, gilt-framed paintings, and decorative objects. There was even a suit of medieval armor. Pointing to it, he asked if it were a real antique.
Kim shrugged. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” she said.
Edward walked to a window and fingered the curtain fabric. “I’ve never seen so much drapery in all my life,” he said. “There must be a mile of this stuff.”
“It’s very old,” Kim said. “It’s silk damask.”
“Can I see more of the house?” Edward asked.