Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) by Shalini Boland Page B

you’re gonna explode in a
minute.’
    Ben’s cheeks
coloured and Maddy felt bad for embarrassing him in front of the
solicitor.
    ‘ You’re right, Ben, it is exciting,’ Mr Vasey-Smith said, rescuing the
situation. ‘And I think you’re quite right to want to explore
everything straight away. The house is only the half of it. You own
over one hundred acres of land here. There’s a lake, a chapel, some
woodland, the deer park and a beautiful ornamental garden. There
are even a couple of follies on the grounds.’
    ‘ What’s a folly?’
    ‘ I won’t spoil it for you. I’ll let you discover them for
yourself. Much more fun that way.’
    ‘ Okay,’ Ben said, his enthusiasm restored. ‘See you later,
Mads. I’m going outside for a bit.’
    ‘ Catch you later, shortie.’ Once Ben had left the room,
Maddy’s feelings of insecurity returned, but Mr Vasey-Smith
instantly put her at her ease.
    ‘ Well, Madison, I know you’ll probably want explore at your
leisure, but shall I just give you a quick tour so you can get your
bearings?’
    ‘ That would be great. Thank you.’ She stood up and followed
him out of the drawing room.
    Later that
evening, after Mr Vasey-Smith had left for the station, Madison and
Ben sat at the large scrubbed pine kitchen table and ate a supper
of shepherd’s pie and salad. Ben inhaled his food while Maddy just
moved hers around the plate.
    ‘ You okay, Benny boy?’
    ‘ Yeah, I love it here,’ he replied with his mouth
full.
    ‘ Good.’ At least she didn’t have to worry about him adjusting
to country life. He seemed made for it.
    ‘ Are you okay, Maddy? It’s just, you seem really quiet and you’re
never usually quiet, not like this. At home you’re usually moody
quiet, if you know what I mean. But here you’re like, a different
sort of quiet. Aren’t you glad to be here?’
    ‘ Oh, Ben, I am really glad we’re here, but I’m probably just
tired. I’ll be back to normal in the morning. I’ll be
‘ moody quiet’ for
you then, okay?’
    ‘ Okay.’
    ‘ Now, once we’ve finished eating, you know what we’ve got to
do don’t you?’
    ‘ No, what?’
    ‘ Choose our bedrooms.’
    ‘ Yesss! Can we go now?’
    ‘ Yeah, Ben, we can do whatever we like. Come on, you choose
first.’
    ‘ Really?’
    ‘ Yep. Lead the way.’
    They went up
the wooden staircase which led to the upper floors and their nine
bedrooms.
    ‘ What we gonna do with all these rooms?’
    ‘ Have lots of people to stay I suppose. Our friends could
come. We could have big parties. Or we could sleep in a different
room every night if we want.’
    ‘ Yeah, cool,’ Ben’s eyes grew wide. ‘But I’d like this green
room at the front for now. It’s got an awesome view across the
fields and you can see the deer.’
    ‘ Okay, it’s yours.’ Maddy walked out of the green room and
along the landing, peering into a couple of the bedrooms. She
opened one of the doors at the end and called to Ben. ‘I’m going to
have this room at the back!’ It was all reds and golds with the
most enormous bed she’d ever seen.
    She
immediately thought of the small, saggy single bed in her tiny room
at the Johnsons. Not that she had ever minded having a tiny
bedroom. She’d been happy to have any space to call her own, no
matter how small. But this room, it was something else.
    Ben followed
her. ‘Cool room. Massive bed. What’s the view like?’
    ‘ Dunno.’
    She drew back
the heavy velvet curtains and looked out onto a stone balcony,
adorned with carved cherubs and angels. They pulled open the
windows letting a rush of cool dusk air into the room, sweeping the
curtains upwards and inwards. Stepping onto the wide stone balcony,
Maddy gasped at the view, spread out like a faded painting before
them.
    It was a
lavish ornamental garden. Its centrepiece, a rectangular lake in
which the house was perfectly and dramatically reflected. Gravelled
pathways surrounded the lake with low manicured hedges, bordered