I felt confident that I could create the illusion of simply stepping from one room to another. Whether I could persuade Matthew of that was another matter, but that could be left until later. I felt a little guilty that I was perhaps using this particular venture as an excuse for not getting on with what I had been sent here for, but also rather smug at my ingenuity in arranging something no one else seemed to have thought of. Whistling tunelessly to myself, I tipped my bowler to the grooms who had followed me out, and now watched me curiously from the stables, then set off to investigate the rest of the estate.
The ground at the back of the house was occupied by an overgrown garden consisting mainly of fireweed, ragwort, plus a few defiant rose bushes. A neglected gravel path led past th
