After her chastising chat with Richard’s mother, Lillian,
Mavis had spent much of the rest of the day exploring the grand old house,
Crackshaw, where she hoped to spend the rest of her life.
After their interview, Lillian had dismissed her rudely and
Richard, when she found him, had made it clear that he was busy catching up
with his business.
The house was even vaster than Mavis’s first impression had
supposed. It had two great inner courtyards joined by two archways and several
wings leading off from that principle figure-eight pattern. In her wanderings,
it became clear to Mavis, that it might take days, or even weeks, to fully
appreciate the scale of the place.
She found a library with thousands upon thousands of books
with walkways going round the walls on two levels reaching fully three storeys up.
At each level there was a little bridge across the centre of the room from one
side to the other with spiral stairs at each corner leading up. There was a
grand banquet hall with a vast table filling its length and great windows that
let the light stream in. There was a chapel within the building that was far
larger than Griply church and far more lavishly decorated. There was dining
room after dining room, each meant, surely, for subtly different purposes, and
an equal number of living rooms.
And all over the house were little servant doors, leading to
narrow corridors and screw stairs through which the servants could scurry to do
their master’s bidding.
The grounds were equally extensive. Mavis viewed them first
from the windows of various rooms and later by actually walking out. She found
lavish flowerbeds and an incredible topiary garden. She found fountain after
fountain, the largest one of which was built around statues of mighty charging
horses. She found an extensive maze that she was afraid to enter for fear of
getting lost. There was a croquet lawn and more than one children’s play house.
There were stables containing more horses than Burt would ever see in his life,
let alone be able to shovel the shit up for.
It was a grander house than Mavis, in her small life and
background, had ever heard over. It was grander than she could ever have
imagined.
But she had come to understand now that her dream of owning
this place was not as straightforward as she had initially thought. At a
glance, this life she was busy stealing appeared to be a fairy tale happy
ending, but Richard’s ambivalence and obsession with work and his mother’s
controlling nature dominated the truth of it. Added to that there was the
threat of the real Ann trying to reclaim her body.
That happy ending wasn’t secure but Mavis wanted it to be.
A life like this hadn’t even been on the table throughout
her life. Yes, there were challenges now – yes, there were enemies in every
direction – but Mavis could see past all that to the prize.
And what a prize!
If she could one day take control of this estate and the
money behind it then she would be happy until the end of her days.
But Lillian was clearly not going to allow that to happen;
not easily.
Mavis saw her more than once while she wandered the gardens,
watching like a vulture from the windows of the house. When it came to their
evening meal, Lillian watched her still.
The meal was an awful affair really with an overlong table
and far too many servants in attendance. Lillian had sat at one end of the
table and Richard the other. Mavis had been seated in the centre. Richard read
through paper reports, engrossed, and Lillian only went on staring, eating
sepulchrally. Her chilly gaze offered no welcome ; only open hostility.
Mavis kept her own gaze on her food as course after lavish
course was brought out. If she did look in Lillian’s direction she gave her an
open and friendly smile, refusing to allow herself to be cowed by the miserable
old woman.
She had realised something as she walked round, thinking
about her old life and the new one stretching out before her. She realised
something now, feeling Lillian’s enmity washing over her.
This place was going to be hers; all of it; and Lillian was
not going defeat her.
