There were a few more rooms to be seen – Rupert’s was clean and so was Mavis’s, but the rest were in the same state as those downstairs.
Finally they all descended the great staircase.
As they did so Marietta felt the hall which had once been so impressive looked even more neglected than it had before.
They reached the ground floor and she looked at the men not realising how pleading her eyes were or how pretty they looked.
Her hair the same colour as Mavis’s was shining like gold in the sunshine coming through the open front door.
A man who seemed a little older than the rest and who Marietta learned later had been a Sergeant Major in the Army, spoke first,
“We’ll start with the big Salon,” he said, “and that will make somewhere decent for mademoiselle to sit in the evenings.”
“Tha
