“Oh, I meant to tell you. Miss Minerva, there was ever such a strange man in the village today. Said ’e’s writin’ a book about The Castle and askin’ everybody questions about it.”
“Writing a book about The Castle?” Minerva repeated. “I wonder who he is.”
“It won’t be as good as the one your father wrote, that’s for sure,” Mrs. Briggs answered. “’E were a foreign gentleman for one thing and them foreigners don’t understand us English, do they?”
“A foreigner?” Minerva questioned.
“That’s right, miss, a strange-lookin’ man with dark ’air and an accent so it were ’ard to understand what ’e said!”
“But why should he want to write a book about The Castle?” Minerva questioned, speaking more to herself than to Mrs. Briggs.
“’I ’spose ’e thinks it’ll make a lot of money,” Mrs. Briggs replied.
