Fettigrew Hall - The Biography of a House

Fettigrew Hall - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

May 2009

Megan had enjoyed a wonderful half day at the zoo with Andrew. He showed her his favorite spots. There were a number of baby animals that had recently been born. They particularly got laughs out of spending time in the Monkey Walk, which allowed close contact with the animals. Megan was surprised to also find an aquarium there, which had been established in the mid 1800s. She and Andrew had had lunch together and then Andrew had to catch his train home. She was grateful to him for the very pleasant day and promised to keep him apprised of her sight seeing.

After that Megan spent nearly another month exploring all the nicks and crannies of England that she came upon. Each night she studied her map and read her books. Sometimes, she simply found a road or sign on her way to another site. She would stop and explore, often talking to people. This was more fun than she had envisioned. She still missed Pete fiercely and wanted to share all of this with him. Nights were the worst because she was usually worn out and wished she could share this with him. She had started journaling her thoughts to Marc in her emails.

Email to Marc – June 1st

Hi hon. Hope all is well with you. Remember the house I explored? Can’t get my mind off it. I dream about it every night. Guess it is like the times I fixed the other houses. Remember how I got so involved with them? I’m seriously thinking of doing something like that here, too. At least it would give me a meaningful project.

What is new with Tracy? Have you told her yet that you are totally head over heels?

Went to visit Bisham, pronounced Bissum, without the “h”, just down the road from Windsor. Stayed at W over night in the White Hart. Had a room that looked down on the castle and Main Street. Still very charming.

Miss you much!!

All this time, she had become more and more obsessed with the house. When she was bored she ran through the memories of it and arranged furnishings in it. She realized she hadn’t seen the whole house. She had never gone to the first floor. She hadn’t explored the rest of the surrounding property, and she hadn’t gotten into the gate house. She wondered how she could be so drawn to the house. It was like she belonged there and maybe had been there before. But she hadn’t. She gave thought to whether she might be experiencing some irrational form of mourning, which made her nostalgic. Maybe she was just losing her mind. She had done some pretty “outside the box” things since she had come to England. She was behaving in ways she wouldn’t have at home.

Remembering that over many years, she had restored a few small Victorian properties that she had then put on the market. She had made some nice profits from time to time. She wondered if she could fix a property like this: restore it, live in it, and make it useful again. Oddly, when it made no difference to her at all, she had almost unlimited resources for such a project. She had always had a comfortable trust from her grandfather’s estate. She had done well with her business. There were the two large insurance policies paid out when Peter died. The profits on their house had been very nice. And so Megan began to plot ways she might be able to acquire the house.

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Her pack had become so full of papers and disorganized that she decided to sort it out and repack. Andrew Janeway’s card was amongst the bits of paper and notes. She remembered the lovely time with him at the zoo. It had been a clear day, though still a bit breezy and cool. They had enjoyed the animal antics, the darling babies and laughed all day. Andrew was such a sweet man. She should contact him again. In fact, she should discuss this property with him, since he was an estate agent.