Coveley Castle

4

As the days went by, I got used to the slow pace of life at the castle, where I lived with Mrs. Murray and Arthur McClay.

Although the castle was huge and had many rooms for the lords and even more for the staff, there were only the three of us living there.

Behind the house were the stables, the old horse stalls, the pens, and the old forge. From some details of the large carved columns, it could be seen that the stables were once a beautiful building.

When there were no more thoroughbred horses in Coveley, a slow but steady dismantling began. By 1830, when I came to live there, the stables were completely abandoned, as was the forge.

There had been no blacksmith in Coveley for years, and the two horses that remained at the castle were kept in the large stable along with the goats and the cart. Only the small pen next to the stable, marked by a stone wall, remained of the pens.

Mrs. Murray told me that when she was a child, there was another large pen with a wooden fence behind the forge, and a second pen and even a mill located at the edge of the north stream, but none of that existed by the time I arrived there.

The house itself was mostly unused, although it was certainly better cared for.

The rooms on the second floor were always closed. Large linen canvases covered the furniture and tapestries. Mrs. Murray kept them clean and ventilated them in spring and fall. Then the doors were locked again.

The service rooms on the third floor had been vacant for at least ten years, and no one ever went there.

Mrs. Murray and Arthur had moved their rooms to the ground floor a long time ago. She slept in what had once been the spacious and bright servants' dining room in Lady Elizabeth's time, and he in a smaller but equally comfortable room where the silverware, dishes, and tablecloths used to be stored.

For many years, Arthur McClay had been the coachman, gardener, woodcutter, and head of the estate's staff at Coveley.

When Lord James's second wife left for London after his death, there were not many servants left. Those most trusted went with her, and the rest were dismissed.

Only Margaret Murray, among the oldest, stayed living in the castle, and it soon became evident that she could not manage everything alone, but young Anthony let years go by without doing anything to change things.

It was not until he returned from one of his many trips that he decided to hire workers for the estate, and that was when Arthur arrived with his father and a brother. After a few years, they left, but Arthur took over the job and stayed there working. He was not afraid of hard work and liked the solitude of the place.

McClay was a quiet man with a peaceful nature. He repaired the stables whenever necessary and helped move heavy furniture in the house when Mrs. Murray had to clean. He grew vegetables and raised goats, lambs, and chickens. Vulgarly speaking, he was the "jack of all trades."

Thanks to both of them, the castle was kept as best as possible, always waiting for the notice of the return of the owner, who preferred to travel rather than settle on his land.

Since his youth, Lord Anthony Coveley had lived more years outside than in his own castle. Who could understand that? Certainly not me. But the arrangement suited me, I said to myself. And I refrained from making comments, limiting myself to always listening to what they said and guessing what they didn't say, to learn everything I could.

No wonder my mother said I was a clever boy!

With the lord living outside the country, Arthur had become accustomed to making decisions, whether small or important, with Mrs. Murray. Taxes and rents were handled by a manager from London, but except for a letter of credit that was renewed every year, they received no mail or other instructions from anyone.