I found it hard to believe that I had once entertained the notion of the company being renamed Grubb & Sons. That idea was now as cold and lifeless as the late Lord Oaklight.
I had thought to spend my day out riding on the estate, but my father’s telegram must have been more on my mind than I cared to admit and, after taking a wrong turn on the second storey, I found myself in a part of the house I hadn’t previously seen. The floor had an odd slope to it, more evidence of the instability of this part of the building. I was about to turn back when the door in front of me swung slightly open. There was no real mystery to that, as the warping of walls and floors, as I had noted, meant that few of the doors in the building closed properly. Yet something about the door opening before me at tha
