With a belly full of food and buoyed by Nell and Maree’s arrival, I was feeling more grounded than I had in days. Leaving Emma and Maree in charge of clean up, Nell hooked her left arm through my right and we left the great hall.
“I swear, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Nell announced. There was admiration in her voice, despite our somewhat desolate surroundings. “There’s beauty in the place despite the damage.”
We walked down a long hallway, the medieval tiled floor dirty but intact. A pattern of black fleur-de-lis was etched into each clay tile and the pattern was mesmerizing as it traversed the long hallway. The detritus of years of abandonment peppered the floor; dirt, dust and clusters of leaves congregated along the edge of the walls after finding their way in through the damag
