Chapter I

Today is the morning of December 20, 1927, I'm sitting in the back seat of a car and the driver is taking me to a Highfield manor. The driver working for the Wattenberg family looks annoyed, probably looking forward to home. It is heavily snowing outside at the moment and the unmaintained road is pretty frozen.

When I told my mother about the visit to Henry, she didn't want to let me go because she said it could be dangerous because of the heavy snowing, father laughed at her and said that it cannot be dangerous. Mother was offended and went to her room to handle correspondence. Fortunately, my father then convinced my mother of the improbability of her claim and I also received her permission to leave.

Right now, the car stopped abruptly, the driver got out. I waited for a while, then the driver knocked on my window "I'm sorry, miss, but this won't work, you know, winter doesn't do much good for cars." He laughed and began unloading my luggage from the trunk. "But don't worry, it's not far." It was very cold and the wind was blowing, so we didn't go very fast. "We're almost there, but we should move a little faster, I'd like to draw it up to the car service." He turned to me and I speeded up as much I could. He was right it wasn't that far, I can already see Highfield manor around the corner. From a distance, it looked majestic, but when we got closer, it was impossible not to notice that the plaster is battered in several places and that the manor is not in very good condition overall.

The driver put down my luggage and rang the doorbell, and after a long wait, the elderly majordomo, Mr. Nickels, opened the door for us. "Welcome, Miss Watson." Mr. Nickels greeted me. "Thank you," I said, entering the lobby. The majordomo shouted at the driver to hand him my luggage. In the meantime, I looked around the dark hall. "You can wait here, miss, young Mr. Henry will be here soon." Mr. Nickels turned to me as he walked past me through the massive door to the entrance hall. I stood alone in the darkened corridor for a moment, but then I heard the thump of footsteps from the next room. Someone was probably running down the stairs very quickly. I didn't even realize, and the door to the next room flew open and Henry burst in like the wind.