Chapter 11 #3
‘What do you think that says?’ she said, pointing to what looked like a line of text at the bottom edge. She zoomed back out, squinting. ‘Is it “kitchen”?’
Leo shook his head. ‘Possibly, but… Can you show the original sketch again? I want to check something.’
She did as he asked, wondering what he’d spotted.
He turned his head this way and that, before tapping the screen. ‘Now go back to a photo of the main house, one taken from the furthest distance away.’
She clicked through several, watching Leo’s face for any change in expression. He nodded once or twice, but nothing more, and it remained impassive until she reached the last in the series – this time taken from a slightly elevated position so that some of the roofline was apparent.
‘Right, and back to the sketch…’
He studied the screen for a moment or two more.
‘I think… no, I’m pretty certain this is a site plan.
It’s not a formal one, but these squares here…
’ He tapped the screen again. ‘I think these are meant to show the outline of the main house. Imagine if you were looking at it from above, concentrating on the front – you’d see a section in the middle jutting out where the portico and stone steps are, then, on each corner, another square section, wrapping around the corner which would be the two wings you can see in the photo. ’
‘Yes, I can see that…’ She looked at the rest of the sketch. ‘But there aren’t any photos from the back or the sides of the house, so how do we know if this is right?’
Leo shrugged. ‘We don’t, but I guess the fact that it’s included with all the other documents relating to Brenant House means that it is. I think we have to assume that’s what we’re looking at.’
‘So, what does that mean?’ she asked, frowning in concentration as she stared at the screen. ‘I’m not sure what that tells us.’
‘Well, if I’m right… then it tells us exactly what was on the site. In far more detail than we could glean from the photos.’
She screwed up her face. ‘And…? Sorry, it’s interesting and all that, but I’m still not sure how this helps us.’
Leo glanced out of the window and then scooped up her laptop from the table. ‘Come with me.’ He was out of the back door before she had even got to her feet.
‘Leo, wait! I can’t…’ She sighed in exasperation and limped after him, snatching up the stick propped by the door as she passed.
After a minute or so, realising that Gemma wasn’t beside him, Leo doubled back. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I forgot.’
He walked slowly alongside her, exactly as Mulligan had the day they’d been formally introduced – all suppressed excitement and contained exuberance. She smiled in spite of the niggling pain in her ankle.
It wasn’t fully dark yet, but the rain had meant the gloom had barely lifted all day, and now with a thick mist swirling around them, the view ahead was almost completely lost.
‘I’m not sure how much we’re going to see,’ she said as they neared the old farmhouse.
‘We don’t need to,’ Leo replied, tapping his head. ‘It’s all up here.’
Eventually they were standing beside the tumbledown building. She waited while Leo did a circuit of it, laptop in hand, intent on what the screen was showing him. Then, he turned, looking back towards the house, before pivoting a final time to face right and, as Gemma now knew, towards the river.
‘Show me,’ she said.
He turned the laptop on its side, propping it in the curve of his elbow before tapping the screen.
‘Ignore the buildings for a moment and look at the edges of this sketch.’ His finger traced a curving line on its topmost edge.
‘I think this is the river… and if it is, then this other line is what was originally the driveway to the house.’
Gemma frowned, looking behind her for moment. ‘Which could conceivably be where the avenue of trees by the kitchen garden is now.’
‘It could… and if we then look at the house in the sketch, and the way it’s situated on the plot, facing that driveway, then the old farmhouse here and the remains of the outbuildings that are dotted about…’
Gemma glanced from the screen to Leo’s face, her mouth suddenly gaping open.
‘Were built later, on what looks like the original stable block…’ She whipped her head back the way they’d come.
‘So where’s the house from the photos?’ she asked.
‘The huge house with the big portico and staff lined up outside. Where did that go?’
‘I have no idea,’ replied Leo, grinning. ‘But that aside, I think we’re standing in what was once its grounds. Bloody hell, Gemma, I think you’ve found it!’
Gemma took the laptop from his hands, eyes roving the details on the sketched map, followings its lines, its markings.
Then she looked up, staring towards the river and then back in the other direction towards the field where she’d slipped over.
She quickly clicked back to the open tab showing the photos, scrolling through them in turn until she found the one she was looking for.
‘Oh my God,’ she said, staring at Leo. ‘Look at this. There was a garden here. A beautiful garden…’