Free Mariana by Susanna Kearsley Page A

on the love seat that faced the sofa across the coffee table.
    'And what would you like, Julia?' Vivien asked. 'To drink, I mean.'
    Every time I had been asked that question in the past, I had, without fail, managed to choose the one item that my host did not have. This time, I tried a new approach.
    'You're the bartender.' I smiled. 'I'll let you choose.'
    'Trusting soul,' Geoff remarked, as Vivien went to get my drink. 'So, tell me. What, specifically, are you interested in?'
    'I'm sorry?'
    'Historically. Just your property?'
    'Mainly, yes. But I'm also quite interested in the history of your Hall.'
    'Are you really?' He looked pleased.
    Iain groaned audibly. 'Here we go,' he said, through a mouthful of beer and sandwich.
    "Why? What did I say?'
    'Nothing,' Vivien said, returning with two tall glasses filled with a pale drink. 'It's just that Geoff does tend to get stuck in a rut, sometimes, when he launches into a history of the Hall.' She set my drink in front of me and took her seat beside Iain, who shot her a sideways glance.
    'That's putting it kindly,' he commented.
    I looked at my drink, curious, and Vivien smiled. 'There's rum in that,' she warned me, 'but the rest of the ingredients are top secret.'
    My first experimental sip was a pleasant surprise. 'It's wonderful. Thanks.'
    'You're welcome. Now then, Geoff, on with the lecture. I suppose you'd better take us right back to the Benedictine priory and go on from there, since Julia's interested.'
    'Right.' He opened his file folder and cheerfully arranged the papers inside, just like a schoolboy exhibiting a class project. 'That was in 1173, I believe....'
    'Seventy-four,' Iain corrected, rubbing his eyes with one hand.
    '... when Henry the Second granted a plot of land to one Thomas Killingbeck, for the purpose of building a Benedictine monastery. The Benedictine order was pretty big in those days.' 'Henry the Second,' I mused, leaning forward. 'That's Richard the Lionheart's father, isn't it? The one who had Thomas a Becket murdered?'
    Geoff turned approving eyes on me. 'Yes, that's right. Not many people remember that.'
    'Well, it's my brother's name, you see,' I explained. 'Thomas Beckett. I sort of paid attention to that part of the history lesson at school.'
    Iain stretched his legs out in front of him, slinging one arm along the cushioned back of the love seat. 'Your brother's name is Thomas?' His gray eyes twinkled in amusement. 'Rather appropriate naming on your parents' part, wasn't it?'
    'Rather.' For the benefit of Geoff and Vivien, I explained. 'Tom's a vicar in Hampshire, not far from here.'
    Geoff laughed. 'Not really? Well, if he makes Archbishop of Canterbury he'll certainly turn some heads, won't he?'
    'I don't think he's that ambitious. Tom likes the country life. Anyhow, I'm getting off the subject. What happened to the priory?'
    'Well, the monks did just fine until Henry the Eighth decided to nationalize the monasteries. The last prior was hanged for resisting royal authority.'
    'He's one of the ghosts, isn't he?' Vivien asked.
    'Supposedly. Quite a few people have reported seeing a ghostly monk floating around in the hallways, but whether it's the prior's ghost is open to speculation.' He spoke with surprising frankness, as if seeing a ghost in one's hallway were an everyday occurrence. 'At any rate,' he carried on, checking his notes, 'the property was sold in 1547 to Sir James Crofton, who started building a house on the site of the ruined monastery. The house gets its name from him. In the old maps it's referred to as Crofton's Hall, and as time went on, people just began leaving off the s. He only lived there fourteen years, before selling the place to Nicholas Hatch, who gave it to his son Edmund as a wedding present.
    'Edmund Hatch didn't have much time to enjoy the house, either, because he died in 1594. Some sort of shooting accident, apparently. He left the estate to his wife, Ann, and she, bless her heart, promptly married my