The Inheritance Book 1

Ch 9 Exploring: Graehm Yarrow [Tuesday Afternoon, Week One]

Graehm smoothed out a wrinkle on his dark blue bedspread and realigned his notepad and the train-engine pencil holder on the nightstand. He surveyed the room one more time to make sure all was in order and everything was in its proper place. Satisfied, he locked the door behind him and headed downstairs.

He had an hour to investigate and explore the estate before dinner. His first priority was to check out a suspicious sound in the floorboards.

Yesterday, on his self-guided tour of the first floor, he had taken two steps into the northeast hallway when Miss Haversham popped out of her office under the stairs and firmly informed him that the hallway led to her and Allora's bedrooms, and was, therefore, off-limits.

As he quickly apologized and exited, he thought that the hardwood floor squeaked and sounded hollow beneath his feet. The rest of the first-level castle floors were solid, so he couldn't help but wonder if the castle had a secret underground room or basement. But he had to check the floor again to make sure he hadn't just imagined the sounds.

Miss Haversham was not in her office. Graehm glanced around and, finding no one else nearby, went to that same spot and walked heavily back and forth. Oh, yes! There was definitely some sort of hollow space under the floor.

But where was the entrance? It had to be in one of the rooms in the off-limits hallway.

He heard the click of a doorknob turning and ducked around the corner. Not yet feeling safe from discovery, he hurried through the foyer.

As he went out through the side door, he wondered what could be in the basement of a castle like this? Dungeons? Probably not. A secret passage? Perhaps. Hidden treasures? Likely. Anything of historical value would be a treasure to Graehm.

Even if there was no fortune attached to the inheritance, he would still want to be the heir if for no other reason than to discover all Trecorin's secrets. And there were many!

Graehm's keen interest in castles began two summers before, when his parents, both college-professors, had taken him and his little brother to the United Kingdom. They had visited several ancient and medieval castles, including Tintagel, the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur. Naturally, he didn't believe in any of the magical nonsense, but he was fascinated enough to add castles to his personal list of top ten favorite subjects.

Trecorin Manor was a relatively modern, scaled-down replica and not a true historic castle. He had done some research prior to his arrival here and discovered that it had been built in the late 1800s by Aunt Allora's grandfather William Eversleigh. And while it was very large compared to a house, it was relatively small for a castle. It had three full floors, each with high ceilings, and one round lookout tower on the east side. The room at the top of the tower might be counted as the fourth story.

Graehm didn't really care whether it was historic or not. Being here for the summer was a pleasure, especially when he knew that he had a decent chance of inheriting it. And its location was irrelevant--who wouldn't want to own a castle? No matter where it was!

He strode through the west gardens, past the pool and sports courts, and around to the back fields. Just like many of the castles of old, this one boasted an entire farm, with fruit trees, berry bushes, rows of garden veggies, and a greenhouse. And of course, animals. Three pygmy goats chased each other around in a large pen. A mama goat nursed her tiny little kid on one end. Further out in the meadow, cows and horses grazed peacefully on the tall grasses.

Averi was bent over a bush, filling a small basket with fat, juicy blackberries. She had on her wide-brimmed yellow sun hat and long sleeves, even though it was after 5 pm and the sun was on its way down. She smiled and waved, which surprised him a little. Up until now, she acted like she wanted to be left alone.

Graehm waved back and went over to say hello. He wasn't one to hold a grudge.

He was about to ask why she was picking berries when a scream stopped him in his tracks. The mountains echoed sound all around so he couldn't tell exactly where it came from.

"Crikey! What was that?' Graehm plugged his ears and looked around. "What happened? It sounded close!"

Averi's shoulders were up near her ears. Some of the blackberries spilled out of the basket she carried. "That is the second time in the last half hour! The creepiest thing I've ever heard. Worse than that bobcat yell! I went in and told Mrs. Carter. She said she would call someone and also sent Mr. Carter to investigate."

"Okay, that's good. I guess. And we're just supposed to ignore it in the meantime? There are so many strange things going on here!"

"You got that right!" Averi picked up the basket of berries. "Well, I'm not done, but I'm done, so I'm outta here. See you later."

"Yes, see you later."

Were random screams and screeches just the norm here? Yesterday morning, it was an ear-splitting, high-pitched cry that sounded like a pterodactyl, but they were told it was just a frustrated bobcat. This time, Graehm could tell it was a man by the deep, gravelly quality of the voice. A man who sounded like he was in the kind of terrible anguish and shock that someone would feel if he just had his hand ripped off by his own beloved dog.

How incredibly frustrating it was not to have any online research tools at his disposal!

Graehm hoped that help truly was on the way for whoever was in trouble.

Trying to shake off the tension, he went around to the east side of the estate. Here, the manicured lawns ended just a few yards from the castle. Beyond the brick border of the lawns were acres of grasses and bushes, with pine, fir and spruce trees stretching high up into the sky. He was already familiar with this view because his bedroom window was situated just above where he was standing.

Graehm ran his hand over the gray stones of the castle walls. Why had Allora's grandfather, William Eversleigh, built a castle in the Arizona mountains? It seemed highly impractical. Where did he get the materials, and how did he transport them here? Graehm had so many questions. He wished William was still alive so he could ask him.

Graehm figured he was the only one out of all the kids that was curious about all this since the other just seemed to take it all for granted without question. He was likely also the only one who knew of William Eversleigh and felt a connection to him. William Eversleigh was the brother of one of his dad's great-grandfathers.

He admired the man's attention to detail. Trecorin was a masterpiece. Of course, it would have been awesome if it had a moat and a drawbridge, but there were plenty of other interesting features, such as the round tower topped by battlements, a tall curtain wall entirely enclosing the grounds, incredibly high ceilings, decorative arches, and his favorite: secret compartments, doorways, rooms and staircases.

The first thing he had done after unpacking last night was to conduct a methodical search of his bedroom to see if there was any sort of secret nook or cupboard. It had taken him two and a half hours, but his efforts were well worth it. He discovered a cubbyhole concealed in the pillar against the west wall. It was empty, but the fact that he found one filled him with gratification, and sparked a new ambition.

He was on a quest to find as many of the castle's secret nooks, crannies, closets, passageways, rooms and staircases that he could. Maybe he would discover something significant.

Of all the places, Graehm was most intrigued by the mysterious hidden basement and the tower room, but both were, at the moment, inaccessible. The stairs to the tower were just around the corner from his room. He had gone up there this morning, but as he had expected, the door to the tower room at the top was locked. He had the tools and could easily pick the lock, but as of now, the risk of being caught and sent home wasn't quite worth the reward. But the more he thought about it, the more tempted he became.

Graehm strolled toward the front of the castle. As he turned the corner, he looked up at the tower room windows.

The curtains were slightly parted and a face looked out. He couldn't be sure because the windows were high on the tower walls, but it looked like Kara Carter. She yanked the curtains closed again. What was she doing up there? Cleaning, perhaps?