Elizabeth: Part XXII

(Story begins here.)

The late afternoon sun imparted a slightly different feel to the manor. The rays entered through the ample windows that overlook the grand stairs, giving it a warm orange glow that was rather soothing in nature. The air was still, but that was to be expected given that there were no specialised ventilation systems installed, yet at the same time, the stillness itself had not gotten to the point of it being stale. Anton was attributed it to the rather high ceiling of the manor---the ceiling was roughly two stories up at the grand hall---but he could not confirm if his theory was true. And there was still no reason for him to pursue that line of thought anyway. But the warmth of the light through the windows cast over the stairs---that was what drew him to the manor in the first place. He was given a quick tour of the grounds when the board of trustees invited him to be a master of the manor, and it was roughly at this time of the day when he first set foot into the house itself. He was struck by the subtle beauty of it all, and that made the idea of being the master of such a lovely place all the more enticing.

Of course, now that he knew that the previous masters of the manor had perished under mysterious circumstances with the housekeeper (and his father!) left largely intact, he started to second-guess if his choice was a wise one indeed. Anton gently pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he climbed up the stairs back to his room to prepare for the dinner appointment with the Crawfords. Given all that he had done so far, a little distraction from yet another group of neighbours that he had not met sounded like a splendid idea.

Roughly twenty minutes later, Anton had successfully showered and changed into the dinner jacket that the housekeeper had laid out for him as promised. The sun was still hovering low on the horizon, but was not completely sedate enough to go down just yet. There was still some time to go before the dinner at six, and so Anton made his way back to the study and picked up a couple of books from the less suspicious looking sections of the library and sat down behind the table and started reading one of them.

(Story continues here.)