“Okay,” Joanna said, cautiously walking down the steps. As she reached the bottom, she noticed the walls of the spacious room were lined with shelves, a few of which held paper goods and household supplies. “Let me guess…the pantry?”

“Very good,” Evelyn said, walking past her to open a narrow door. “And through here is the wine cellar.”

“Now you’re talking,” Joanna said, happily following Evelyn into the ante-chamber.

Like the pantry, the floor of the sizable room was dirt and the walls stone, but in place of shelving holding supplies, two rickety wooden racks with crisscrossed partitions stood against a wall. Bottles poked out of almost every opening Joanna could see, and while some were rather dusty, others were not.

“I’m still not seeing it,” Joanna said, turning to Evelyn. “I’ll give you these rooms are big, but how could they possibly hold carriages, let alone horses?”

“They couldn’t,” Evelyn said as she pointed to the far corner of the wine cellar. “But through that door is what takes up most of the space.”

Joanna looked past Evelyn at the battered door and then back at Evelyn. “You’re not setting me up for some sort of joke, are you?”

“Hardly,” Evelyn said with a laugh. “Go on, open it. I’m not sure impressed is the right word, but I do believe you’ll find it...um...interesting.”

“Okay, but I swear if something jumps out at me, you are no longer my friend,” Joanna said as she walked over and slid the iron latch from its keeper. The door instantly popped open and just as quickly Joanna was awash in warm air smelling of bleach. Running her hand down the wall, Joanna found the light switch and flipped it on.

“Oh my God,” she said, quickly looking back at Evelyn. “It’s a pool!”

Without waiting for a response, Joanna took another step and stared slack-jawed at the rectangular swimming pool, the surface of the water gently rippling as the filter did its job.

“This is why he walled it off,” Evelyn said, coming to a stop next to Joanna. “I’m assuming the barn doors didn’t keep out the cold, so after they concreted the floor and put in the pool, they bricked up the openings. And in case you’re wondering, the exercise area is down there on the right.”

Still unable to form a sentence, Joanna headed toward the light streaming from the far corner of the room, but when she reached the alcove, her mouth dropped open. The area was filled with an array of high-end fitness aids, but it was impossible not to notice something else. Every piece of equipment was dotted with spots of rust. Taking a deep breath of the moist air, she glanced toward the ceiling and saw that the acoustical tiles had fared no better. Each was showing stains caused by the humidity.