"Traitor," he whispered in my ear. "You and I will have to discuss this later."
I giggled and blushed like a little girl. Pathetic.
"You coming?" Lucy appeared at my elbow, and smiled radiantly at Angus.
"Absolutely," I stated, deciding that she needed to be removed from Angus' vicinity as soon as possible. She really was very pretty when she wasn't having a strop. Angus didn't seem to notice, though. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at me and grinned wickedly.
"Let's go," Lucy didn't seem to like not being the centre of attention. I was happy to oblige - my face felt like it was on fire, and the fluttering sensation in my belly was back again. I kept my eyes on the floor until I was sure we'd left the sun room.
"OK, I was thinking we could start in the older parts of the building. One of the wings dates from just after William the Conqueror, and you can see all the old roof beams. One of them looks like they just split a big old oak tree in half and used the two halves to form an arch. It's all smoke stained and filled with old nails. It's beautiful." Lucy chattered as we wandered down a large passage, the soles of my trainers squeaking on the polished stone floor. In spite of myself, I was starting to get excited. Lucy's enthusiasm was contagious, and I had always had a soft spot for history. Especially the kind where you didn't have to learn loads of facts, but where you could just stand in an old building, and close your eyes, and inhale the ancient odours and feel the rough hewn walls and worn floor boards, and actually feel that connection to people who had lived there centuries ago.
"So this is the wing I was telling you about," Lucy said as we entered a new room. The beams were lower than those in the passage, and you could see they had not been near any modern machinery. The tool marks from ancient adzes and axes were still visible under the soot stains.
"It's beautiful," I breathed, gazing at the beams and at the supports embedded in the stone walls.
"Isn't it just? And the next one is even better - it's bigger, and we think it was probably some sort of meeting hall..."
We stepped through a doorway into a beautiful old room with soaring beams and a great solid door set in the far wall. There was a more modern looking table in the centre, capable of seating dozens of people, and there was someone sitting at the farthest end. I turned to ask Lucy who that could be, but she was no longer there. I watched as a thick wooden door swung shut behind her, and heard the creaking of a key being turned in the lock. It took a few seconds for the whole situation to sink in.