Misperception

Chapter 10 - At the villa Rosamund

I've started my day earlier than usual in order to prepare myself for the long day among Sir Rupert's house keeping staff. I needed to arm myself with a strategy to earn their trust if I want to get information from them. Thanks to Sir Rupert's kind/selfish invitation, my job will be much easier than going to interrogate them. For the first time since Sally joined me I'll leave her alone at home for at least two days, so I had to entrust the supervision over the kitchen garden and Sally to my dear Moira who accepted the task willingly.

Villa Rosamund is considered somehow a new building, it has been built one hundred years ago and named after Lady Rosamund the great aunt of the current count. It is located to the east of the city in the prestigious aristocratic district that embraces many Lords' villas and mini palaces in the capital out of their counties. Villa Rosamund receives its visitors with a distinctively manicured garden and the Hamilton family crest on its main door. 

The layout of the villa is divided into three wings in every floor, on the ground floor the right wing contains the morning room, drawing salon, dining room, and the dining room pantry. To the left of the main hall, there is the left wing that contains the count's study, secretary office, a medium size meeting room, and archives office. At the end of the hall behind the two mighty curved stairs there is the entertainment wing, where the current count Sir Rupert has modernized it to have a billiard room, home cinema, and a covered swimming pool with adjoined spa and sauna rooms, and a mini gymnasium. 

Climbing the stairs curved to the right and turning right again in a gallery overlooking the main ground floor hall, at the end of the gallery to the left there is the double door to lady Mariah's apartment. Climbing the stairs curved to the left, and turning left there is the double door to Sir Rupert's apartment immediately opposite to his daughter's apartment but with no direct connecting gallery, only the wall with the villa's front door and the painting above it in the main hall, above it comes a big window that allows the sun in until noon . To go from lady Mariah's apartment that resides on the right wing, to the count's apartment that resides on the left wing you have to walk past the two stairs to your left and the four guest rooms to your right. Residing above the entertainment wing in the ground floor is the guest quarter consisting of four rooms, each with its own bathroom. 

from the main hall on the ground floor with the huge piano you can see whoever walking in the second floor gallery, and where they are coming from or going to. Between Lady Mariah's apartment and the guest quarter there is a small stairs to the attic, and on the ground floor there are stairs in front of the entertainment wing that descend to the house keeping staff parlour in the basement. Another staircase is present from the dining room pantry directly to the kitchen. The basement houses the kitchen, cleaning room, the old boiler room, the central conditioning unit room, and the staff parlour which opens to the back of the villa on the gardens as the building is built on a slope opposite to the sea. 

A separate two story building that resembles a university dormitory, housing the staff bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. The staff dormitory as I decided to call it resides one hundred meters behind the villa in a diagonal direction to the left so it doesn't block the sea view. With a lovely patio to the left of the main dormitory door, the staff can have their own private gatherings and even barbecue. I thought of this dormitory as a very decent place for the staff, Sir Rupert didn't save any effort to make it comfortable, and with dignified privacy to every member of his staff. 

The grounds were big enough, but not as big as the estate in the west of the country, the seat of the count with its small palace. The count of Malumborough holds a festival every year at the apple harvest season, usually in late summer and he opens his palace's doors to all his neighbours and tenants with their families. I was lucky enough to attend the wonderful festival few times and stay in the lovely ancient palace with its thirty one rooms thanks to my grandmother the dowager marchioness of Northcastle who always insist on having me on her visits and trips.