Page 4 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)
A fter a few more minutes, we leave the alleyway and walk toward the car. I keep an eye out, but it looks like we’re not being followed.
We point the car in the direction of the Haunted Farm and set off. Hopefully, the Haunted Farm and funfair will put a smile back on their faces.
We’ve not driven this way before, so we look around as Sly drives. We have been driving for a few minutes and are just on the edge of town when Enoch suddenly shouts, “Stop!”
Sly quickly pulls over, and I turn round to look at him, to see him staring out the window. “Come on,” he says, undoing the seat belt and scrambling out of the car before I can ask what’s wrong.
We all quickly get out and follow him. He is standing in front of the most perfect cottage I’ve ever seen. It has an empty feel about it, but not neglected.
“This is amazing,” Sly says, gazing at it.
It does indeed look amazing, double fronted with roses around the front door arch. The house looks pretty and big. Did I mention perfect? I re-evaluate my thinking. It’s too big to be a cottage.
“Come on,” Xander says, opening the front gate and practically running up the path to look in one of the windows. He cups his hands around his eyes and looks. “This room is amazing, and it looks like it has a massive fireplace. Pretty sure we can stand up in it.”
“The same for this room,” Enoch says, looking through the other window.
I look, and the room is huge and empty. I can picture us living here. I pull back and look around, but there isn’t a For Sale board, so I turn back to look at the house.
“Hello, can I help you?”
We spin round and see a young man now standing by the front gate. He looks to be our age and is smiling shyly at us.
“This house looks amazing,” Enoch says, pulling out his too-cute smile.
“Is it on the market, do you know? We’d love to look around it,” I say.
“It is, and it just so happens I have the house keys with me as I was going to check it over. I’m Cam Stone, the town administrator.”
“Are you related to Mayor Stone?” Sly asks.
“He’s my oldest brother. Do you have time now to have a look around?”
“Yes, please,” Xander says, sounding excited, and answering before either Sly or I can.
Cam laughs. “So, the house has been empty, for about three months. The couple who lived here had to move into assisted living,” he explains, walking down the path towards us.
He pulls the keys out of his pocket and unlocks the front door.
“There are three reception rooms, all the same size, with a large kitchen diner, a downstairs WC and a study.”
We walk in, and I swear the house just hugged me. I look at Sly, and he smiles.
“Wow, the house felt like it hugged me,” Enoch exclaims.
Cam laughed. “Places can do that.”
The house entry way is massive. There is a large staircase in the middle, and the upstairs landing looks to go in two directions. There are doors leading off the hallway.
“This is the first reception room,” Cam says, leading us into the first front room, the one Xander was peering into.
“It’s so big,” Xander says, walking further into the room, over to the fireplace and standing up in it. “Told you.”
We laugh, and I shake my head at him.
“It’s a working fireplace, all the fireplaces in this house are.
I’ve also had them all cleaned, so they are ready to use,” Cam says.
“If you look up at the ceiling, you’ll see all the original features are still in place, the same for all the rooms. The previous owners, when they renovated this place, wanted to keep all the original characteristics of the house.
All the windows were replaced about four years ago and are all triple glazed. ”
I watch Sly’s face. He loves old houses and their unique features. He is falling in love with this house. Mind you, he’s not the only one. I am too, and I’m pretty sure the boys are as well.
Cam shows us around the rest of the downstairs. This house really is perfect; the study screams Sly. I can see him practically drooling over it. If I had to guess, he likes this study better than the one we saw yesterday. The kitchen, however, is one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.
“This kitchen is amazing,” Sly sighs happily.
“You have both gas and electric in here,” Cam tells us. “That door there leads to a pantry,” he points to said door, “and this one here leads to a utility room. You can get to the back garden from this door here, or from the utility room. Do you want to see the outside space first or the upstairs?”
“Upstairs,” we all say at the same time.
Cam laughs and leads us back to the front of the house and up the stairs. “There are five bedrooms, three with en-suite and a family bathroom.”
We look at all the bedrooms. They are all large and airy and just perfect.
“I like this room,” Enoch says, looking out of the window of one of the back bedrooms.
“Good. ‘Cause I like the other one.” Xander says, dragging Enoch off to have another look at the room he liked.
“I like the master room the best,” Sly tells me.
I grin. “Me too,”
We walk back downstairs, and Cam leads us out into the back garden. I shake my head. This garden is massive. It has a large veg patch on one side and a patio and lawns on the other. There is a summer house off to one side and a large building at the bottom.
“There are about one and a half acres of land back here,” Cam tells us.
“What’s that building?” Enoch asks, pointing.
“Come and check it out. The last owner owned a cake business,” he says, leading us down the path to the stone building. He unlocks the door, and we go inside.
“Oh,” I breathe out, looking around. “This is perfect,” and it is, all shiny steel surfaces, some marble worktops, cookers, fridges. You name it, this space has it.
“Do you bake?” Cam asks me.
“No, I’m a chocolatier,” I tell him.
“Nice. Do you have a shop?”
I shake my head. “No, it’s all online.”
“Everything in here has recently been checked and tested and is all safe. There is a gate outside on the left. Customers used to collect their cakes from a room over there,” he says, pointing.
I walk over and have a look. I was expecting a small room, but this has tables and shelves, perfect for keeping boxes and the like and a stable door. This is even more perfect.
I walk back and join Cam and Sly.
“The boys have gone back outside,” Sly tells me, before looking at Cam. “Can we get the house particulars and the price?”
“You can. I actually have them on my phone. If you give me your email address, I can send them to you now,” Cam says, pulling his phone out.
“Can you send it to ‘EbbyandSly’ ...” Sly rattles off our email address.
“There, sent. Seen enough in here?”
“I think so,” I look at Sly.
He nods. “Yep, I think we might need to hunt for the boys, though.”
I laugh. “Most probably.”
We leave the workshop, and Cam locks up behind us.
“Thank you for showing us around. I know that wasn’t on your calendar for today,” Sly says to him.
Cam shrugs. “I take days as they come, but I do have to run now, otherwise I’ll be late.”
“You go. We can find the boys and use the garden gate to leave,” I tell him.
“Thanks. You’ll notice that when you leave the garden, you have a double garage as well. If you want to come and look at the place again, I can show it to you. Good luck finding your sons.”
“Thanks, and they’re our brothers and we’ll bribe them with the treat of food,” I reply.
Cam laughed. “Good luck with that, then. Chat soon,” and with that, he strolls off.
I turn to look at Sly. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s perfect, even better than the other house. That house didn’t hug us, this one did. Did you check Cam out?”
I nod. “Yeah, a wolf shifter. That was unexpected.”
“Tomorrow, let’s have a look in the library and the museum and see if we can figure things out.”
“Yeah, that might be wise. BOYS,” I yell out loudly.
They come running from the back part of the garden.
“This place is amazing,” Xander said, grinning at us.
“We could be happy here, and there’s a special separate building for your chocolate business, and it’s big enough to have a dog,” Enoch says, waving his arms around.
Sly looks at me and laughs.
“We’ll have to see if we can afford it first,” I caution. “Come on, let’s go to the Haunted Farm.”