“That’s very lovely of you,” Lucy said, feeling very touched. “And yes, I have...encountered her a couple of times. It scared me to begin with, but I’d like to help her find whatever it is she is searching for.”

“So much depends upon what it was that she treasured,” Maud said, thoughtfully. “For me it is my health these days, as well as my family. During the war years it was our liberty above all else. It varies at different times and from person to person: wisdom, money, life and love...”

“For me it was my orchestral career more than anything else,” Lucy said, “but I’m learning to value other things more now.” She thought of Cleo and Sam, of Verity and of Finn, of love and friendship, and smiled. “For Catherine, though,” she said, “I don’t know. We know so little of her! She created the beautiful Tudor garden, I think, so she must have loved that, and she certainly loved Robert Catesby and her children...”

“And she lost all of those,” Maud said, “through the sudden death of her eldest child and then her own death so soon after. Perhaps she was unprepared; there was something she treasured, but it was left unfinished, hidden or discarded.”

“Her most treasured possession...” Lucy repeated. “People—our family or friends—aren’t really possessions, are they? But perhaps it was something that related to them or reminded her of them?” She put the thought to one side for a moment and looked at the other bits and pieces of memorabilia that Maud had put out for her. There was the same newspaper clipping that she had found in the book at the barn, showing the marks in the soil of Clarabelle’s field. “This was the same summer, wasn’t it?” she said. “When the aerial photos showed some strange buried structures? It said in the book that when people heard there was treasure in the fields at Knightstone they all went out digging for it.”

“Yes,” Maud said. “So foolish! Because of course it was all made up. The newspapers were looking for a story—it was the summer season, the silly season they used to call it in news terms—so they put together the story of the ghost who had lost her treasure with the strange marks in the soil, and started a rumor that led to a frenzy.”

“And all they found were a few coins, a toy or two, and an old key,” she added, with a sigh, “which I think are all in the museum now. It was very far from treasure, but people are still convinced it’s out there somewhere.”

“It sounds as though they conflated the treasure of the Knights Hospitaller with the treasure the ghost had supposedly lost,” Lucy said. “There are old legends that the Knights treasure is hidden here at Knightstone too.”

“People enjoy a good mystery,” Maud said comfortably. “It adds some excitement to life, don’t you think? I imagine there are plenty of people around here who still believe in it. It’s that sort of place, full of myth and legend, and who’s to say it isn’t true?”