The mansion was teetering on rundown and forlorn. Driving up to the door, Ada wasn't impressed with the peeling frames, unkempt weeds and a nest of ants. The Hardbroom family home was a footnote on the list of peerages, an extinct branch of English nobility. Living in reduced circumstances, the last of them had died penniless a long time ago. The plans to restore it as a museum had been shelved and forgotten and there it stood. The thought of being able to sketch somewhere unsullied by the tramping public though, appealed to Ada. She also spared a thought to the possibility of an axe murderer finding it a perfect place to dispose of someone but playing safe didn't always bring riches so she decided she'd just go for it. She was surprised that the mansion hadn't been razed to the ground.
It was easy to gain entry, through a heavy beast of a door with a knocker shaped like an eagle. It was already open. She thought she would like to sketch it. Dandelions adorned the cracks. Ada appraised the hall in front of her. It was most modest for a mansion. What caught her attention was that it seemed less dusty and overgrown than a house left to the wilderness would usually be. She investigated cautiously, noting the lack of ornamentation, the frame shaped marks on the walls, the indentations on the mantlepieces and tables where objects would have normally resided. Someone had ransacked the drawing room at some point. She looked around but didn't see any footprints. The French windows at the back had been left ajar. Weeds threaded through, doors a bit stiff to open. The garden, though. Ada smiled as she slowly traversed the length and breadth of the acre before her. There was even a hedgerow with a door fitted into it, just like in that book she'd read as a child. She wondered what she would see there she peered through the topmost window of the house. Nobody else was using it so why shouldn't she?