Christmas in the Boss's Castle

He smiled as he walked over next to her, moving close. ‘It’s amazing. It was the first thing I noticed when I came to view the castle.’ He pointed above. ‘At least I know the electricity is working inside as well as out.’

She gave him a curious stare. ‘How do you know that?’

He kept looking upwards. ‘Sensors. Think about it—the dome should be covered with snow—just like the rest of outside is. But the engineer who designed it knew that the weight of snow could damage it. He designed one of the first thermal sensors to pick up outside temperatures. The glass is heated—just barely—to stop snow gathering there. I had to have a specialist firm out around ten years ago to update the technology and they could hardly believe it.’

She stopped spinning and stared up at him. She didn’t seem to notice how close they were—or she didn’t seem to mind. She stared up with her chocolate-brown eyes. ‘This place looks amazing. I can’t wait to see the rest of it.’ She touched his arm. ‘Are you okay?’

Still thinking about him. Still showing concern. Anna would have loved Grace Ellis.

‘I’m fine. Come on.’

They hadn’t even closed the door behind them yet and the bitter winds were sweeping in behind them. He slammed the heavy door shut then walked to another small room to flick a few switches. ‘Hot water and boiler should be on. But this place takes a long time to heat up. There are separate heating systems in the different wings so I’ve just put on the main system and the one for the wing we’ll be staying in.’

Did that sound pretentious? He didn’t mean it to. It was a big place, but it could be morning before they finally felt warm here.

He walked over, opening the door to the main sitting room, flicking on the light switch, then stopped in shock.

Grace walked straight into his shoulder.

The artificial light seemed harsh. What greeted them was even harsher. As soon as his foot hit the floor a white mist puffed upwards.

The five windows were shuttered from the inside. The whole room covered in dust sheets. The dust sheets were covered in dust. The dark wooden floor had its own special coating of dust. One curtain was half hanging from a rail. The things that hadn’t managed to be covered in dust sheets were coated from head to foot in a thick layer.

Grace gave a huge sneeze. ‘Oh, sorry.’

He spun around, sending up a further cloud. ‘No. I’m sorry. I didn’t realise it would be quite this bad.’ He shook his head. ‘I just...I just...’ The words wouldn’t form in his brain.

She reached up and touched his cheek. ‘Finlay, it’s fine. It’s your home. It needs a bit of work.’

‘A bit of work? Grace—how on earth can we stay here?’

She folded her arms and looked around. She flicked the edge of a dustsheet and sneezed again as the air clouded. ‘It’s like that film—you remember—when the spy comes back to the old Scottish mansion house he was brought up in.’

‘Remember what happened to that house?’

She let out a laugh. ‘Okay, let’s go for another film. I could sing the Mary Poppins song as we cleaned up.’

‘You honestly want to clean up?’ He couldn’t quite believe it.

‘Why not?’ It was quite ironic. There were no airs and graces around Grace Ellis. She took off her coat and started to roll up her sleeves.

She glanced around. ‘Let’s check out the kitchen. We have some things to put in the fridge.’

Finlay winced. If this was one of the sitting rooms he had no idea what the kitchen would look like.

But he was in for a surprise. The kitchen wasn’t dusty at all. Grace ran her fingers along one of the worktops and looked at him in surprise. Then she started opening cupboards, followed by the larder and fridge.

‘This place isn’t so bad. Someone has kept it clean. Right enough, there isn’t a single piece of food in this house. Just as well we brought the hamper.’

Something clicked in his brain. ‘My mum. They did offer to look after the place and I said no.’ He was almost ashamed to admit that. He walked around. ‘But the main hall wasn’t so dusty and in here has certainly been emptied and cleaned.’ He gave a slow nod. ‘All the other rooms have their doors closed. She hasn’t gone into them. But the kitchen is open plan. She’s only kept things tidy in here.’

Grace gave a nod. ‘The surfaces just need a little wipe down.’ She walked through a door off to the side then stuck her head back around. ‘And there’s enough cleaning products through here to clean this whole place a hundred times over.’ She went to lift the hamper.