“That was very exciting,” Lucy said. She looked at the sunlight slanting through the trees in shades of green and gold. “There’s so much hidden here, isn’t there? You wouldn’t even know it was originally a designed landscape, other than the orchards, I suppose. Are they original?”

“We think that they’re descended from the original Tudor orchards,” Finn said. “There are some beautiful plum, walnut and cherry trees in the valley as well as apple trees on that slope of the hill that faces the barn.”

“And there’s a spiral-shaped mound at the top,” Lucy said, “with an amazing view.” She saw Finn’s thunderstruck expression and realized her mistake. “Sorry,” she said, “I imagined that bit, didn’t I?” She felt the color sting her cheeks. “I dreamed it, actually. Ignore me. I forgot it was just a dream.”

“What do you mean, you dreamed it?” Finn had drawn a spiral mound shaped like a seashell in the sandy earth, exactly as Lucy had experienced it in one of her dreams and in exactly the right place.

“Oh, on the first night I was here I had a weird dream,” Lucy said reluctantly. “It felt like winter; I was freezing cold. Anyway, I was standing on top of a little hill with a view of the orchards. The path went up it in a spiral, like a helter-skelter. That’s why I called it a spiral mound.” She reached for another piece of bread and cheese to cover her embarrassment, and Geoffrey shifted hopefully beside her.

“Well,” Finn said, after a moment, “your dreams are unnervingly accurate. We discovered the footings of an ornamental mound above the orchard and I think it was another Tudor feature. Spiral mounts were very popular—they were used as viewing platforms, to look out across the garden.” He was watching her keenly and Lucy felt awkward, making a fuss of Geoffrey to avoid meeting his gaze. “There’s a matching one across the other side of the valley, behind the barn in Clarabelle’s paddock,” he said. “We didn’t know it was there before as it was used as a village rubbish dump for a while and a lot of it had been dug out by the farmer. But the design is symmetrical.” Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy could see he was still watching her and his frown had deepened. “That is weird,” he repeated. “You really didn’t know? You hadn’t read it somewhere?”

“I don’t think so.” Lucy finally looked at him. “I suppose there’s a chance Verity might have mentioned it to me when I was a child, but...”

“But Verity didn’t know herself,” Finn said. “I only told her recently that we suspected the mounds were there.”

Lucy thought about telling him about the other components of her dreams and decided against it. One dream like that could be considered a coincidence; if she talked about seeing the old manor house and being inside Catherine’s mind, or mentioned the terrifying sense of possession she’d experienced earlier, Finn would not unnaturally assume she had some major issues. She wanted to talk to Cleo first and see what she thought about the scary things that kept recurring at Gunpowder Barn.