Chapter Four
I think my first mistake was taking a left at the foot of the grand staircase instead of a right, which takes me on an odyssey
around the castle in a great big loop of opening and closing doors grand enough for your average giant to fit through. I admit
I’m pretty happy to be lost, and seemingly alone as I take the unscheduled tour of the castle. Outside the huge windows I
can see the day visitors begin to arrive, and gardeners working amongst the flowers, but every room I go into seems to be
empty. The ballroom, sparkling so brightly you’d never guess there had been a party in it last night, seems to be made entirely
of gold, where precious items are contained in alarm-activated cases. Most thrilling is the galleried library, with Beauty and the Beast ladders on wheels and spiral metal staircases that take you to a sort of book balcony. I might have stayed in there, but
as I was standing in the middle of the room, my hands covering my mouth in awe, a door opened and Lady B swept in in a pale
pink trouser suit and light green chiffon scarf.
“Are you lost, Dr. Green?” she asks, her voice warm. “Everybody who stays with us gets lost at least once.”
“I suppose I was trying to find the dining room,” I tell her. “But being lost in here is really wonderful.”
“Well then, come and visit the library whenever you want. There are books here dating back to the 1500s.” She smiles, conspiratorially.
“I’m not a great reader myself, but I do love this room. It sometimes feels as if the books are whispering to each other.
Now, let me escort you to breakfast. I fear you might be the last to partake this morning. It is rather late, almost ten.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, feeling mortified. “I slept through my alarm.”
“Oh, don’t be sorry,” she says, clasping my hand. “That wasn’t my intention. I was just worried you’d be eating alone! Tell
me, how did you sleep? Did you meet the Blue Lady?”
The strange occurrence that happened just before I fell asleep comes back to me in a haze. “Maybe. Are you talking about the
portrait?”
“Ah yes, isn’t it lovely? A Gainsborough, you know. That’s Lady Cecily Beaumont and her little daughter, Eliza. They were
both so beloved by Teddy, the Lord at the time. But there was an outbreak of TB just after Eliza turned three, a few weeks
after that painting was completed. Eliza died very quickly, and Cecily died just two weeks later. It’s terribly sad.”
A vision of my own lost mum, fleeting and unfocused, made of sunshine and half-remembered smile, comes to mind. When I remember
how she hugged me, it’s almost like I’m hugging my own little self.
“It’s really sad,” I say. “Weird how you can feel so sad for people you never knew and who lived centuries ago.”
“I always think it’s rather lovely,” Lady B says. “A thread of connection that runs through all of time. Here we are, the
dining room!”
She hesitates outside the room.
“You may see the Blue Lady while you are here,” Lady B tells me, lowering her voice. “She appears quite regularly, when there
is a child in danger, but also, they say, to those that she thinks might help her.”
“Help her?” I ask.
“Oh, it’s very sad, you see. They say that Cecily and little Eliza both haunt Castle Beaumont, each one always looking for
the other, little Eliza crying out in the night and the Blue Lady gently weeping as she looks for her child.”
I don’t know what expression Lady B sees on my face but she pulls me into a sudden and unexpected hug.
“My dear, there are tears in your eyes!” she says as I breathe in the scent of Chanel.
“Are there?” I touch my fingertips to my face, astonished to find there are.
“I have a feeling that Cecily might see a kindred spirit in you,” Lady B says. “Does that thought frighten you?”
“Oh no, I’ve always wanted to meet a ghost,” I tell her.
“Excellent.” She hesitates. “Tell me, I’m curious. Why did you decide to throw your genius in AI? Out of all of the things
that you could have chosen?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” I say. “When I was a kid nothing that happened to me was within my control. I knew AI was coming, and I knew that a lot of it would be exploitative rather than truly useful. So, I decided to make an AI that would really benefit everyone on Earth, no matter who they are. That would give them control over their own futures and the tools to make the best kind of life they can for themselves, not by thinking for them but by showing them what it means to think. That’s why I made FreeThought.
He’s like the ultimate big brother. Which, when I come to think of it, is maybe not the best term. But you get what I mean?”
“I do, and think you are remarkable. Now go and eat a hearty breakfast,” she says, distracted by a couple wearing matching
very short, tight shorts approaching us.
“Ah, rogue guests,” she mutters, smiling broadly. “Hello there. How lovely to meet you. I’m afraid you’ve strayed into a private
area of the castle. Let me show you the way out . . .”
Suddenly ravenous, I go into the dining room to find that I will not be eating alone after all. There is one other person
still having breakfast, and of course it’s Forrest Faulkner.