“Of course, I’m glad you reminded me. If I’d known I’d have brought the keys with me, but you’ll get a pretty good idea of it from the exterior and if you don’t fall in love with it on sight I’ll have to review my already high opinion of you.”

It took all of three minutes to drive back down the lane and along the road to where a set of dilapidated gates was wide open and partially unhinged. Claudia drove in behind Andee and followed the Mercedes along a short track with one simple curve, and although the rain was coming down heavily now nothing, absolutely nothing could detract from the charm of the house they saw before them as they pulled up. It was just as Andee had described it, with a central clock tower, and two single-story wings on either side of it, each with three huge arched windows that had clearly once been carriage doors. Apart from its perfect symmetry and the exquisite limestone facade (badly stained and cracked, but repairable), its character seemed so alive and welcoming that Claudia was ready to believe it was waking up just for her.

Her passenger door opened and Andee jumped in, quickly closing it behind her. “What do you think?” she asked eagerly.

Claudia couldn’t tear her eyes away. “I already love it,” she murmured, gazing at the weather-beaten front door with a broken transom above it and crumbling pillars holding up a storm-damaged porch. “I’m going to take a closer look, if that’s OK?”

“Be my guest. In fact, I’ll come with you.”

Pulling up their hoods they picked a path through what must have once been a carriage turning space, now cracked and weed-strewn, and went to peer in through the arched windows to the left of the front door. Claudia’s heart instantly swelled at the sight of a huge, old-fashioned kitchen swathed in grime and cobwebs, with a boarded-up window on the far side above a grimy butler’s sink, and barred French doors leading to the backyard. It had so much potential that she simply couldn’t stop her imagination from flying.

“Something else, isn’t it?” Andee commented.

“It certainly is,” Claudia agreed.

Through the arched windows to the right of the main door was a large rectangular room with a high corniced ceiling, an eyesore of a tiled fireplace, an upturned chair and rags on the dusty floorboards, and a staircase in one corner.

Not caring about getting wet anymore, Claudia stood back to look up at the tower. “Are there rooms up there?” she asked.