Chapter Ten

At last Angus received a phone call from someone called Dawn Harding, who introduced herself as dealing with heritage matters in the county and asked, ‘Could my colleague and I come to see the hidden room you found?’

‘Yes, of course. The sooner the better. I’m waiting to do up that house and rent it out.’

‘I know and I’m sorry. Bureaucracies move slowly, but if the room’s in as good a condition as Mr Budworth’s notes say, we do need to protect it most carefully.’

‘What do you mean by “protect”?’ He knew his voice had gone sharp but he couldn’t help that. These delays were costing him time and money. The weather was going to get worse not better, it always did after Christmas, and while he believed in protecting historical artefacts, he needed to sort out this project to bring in money to run the big house. That was just as important as those artefacts, more important by far to him.

He intended to completely weatherproof the big house and deal with restorations to the rest of the interior later, because even a small problem could let in the weather and a lot of damage could be done to window frames before it was noticed.

‘I can’t say exactly what will be needed until I’ve seen the secret room for myself. I could come tomorrow morning if you’re free?’ She laughed gently. ‘Is that quick enough for you, Mr Denning? And I’ll bring a photographer with me, if I may.’

‘My wife and I will meet you and your colleague at the house: Number 1 Saffron Lane.’

‘Ten o’clock suit you?’

‘Fine.’ He put the phone down, muttering to himself as he went to find Nell. He couldn’t share this Dawn person’s humour about the situation. The repairs felt like a burden always weighing him down.

Thank goodness for Nell. She cheered him up, which helped a lot. He felt as if he’d known her much longer than a few months. Indeed, he didn’t know how he’d kept sane without her.

He grinned as that thought sank in. Perhaps he hadn’t been completely balanced in his outlook before. He was so lucky that she’d fallen in love with him in spite of his faults.

Dawn was an older woman, which Angus hadn’t expected from her youthful-sounding voice. She looked at him somewhat warily and it wasn’t till Nell dug him in the ribs and hissed, ‘Smile!’ that he realised he was scowling.

Fortunately Nell defused the situation by smiling and holding out her hand. ‘I’m Angus’s partner, Nell. I’m pleased to meet you, Miss Harding.’

‘Do call me Dawn. And this is Mac. He’s going to take some photographs if it’s all right with you.’

Angus tried not to scowl and failed. ‘Does it matter what we want?’

‘Of course it does. Look, I’m sorry if the delays have upset you, but Mr Budworth died last week, so it was unavoidable. He isn’t easy to replace. I’m standing in for him and I’ll do my best, but I don’t have anything like his breadth of knowledge.’