It was a long sweeping drive with beautiful trees, full of summer leaves, on either side. The trees formed an archway overhead, with sunlight coming through and making a pattern on the roadway.
As Dot looked up through the sunroof of Wilhelmina, the Coms’ Skoda car, she could see the leaves rushing by above them – with sparkly bits where the bright sun came through.
Dot sighed. She loved driving under leaves like that. It was kind of comforting, as if nature had put its arms together to protect you.
“Nearly there now!” said Dad, turning round and grinning at Dot and Wizard sitting in the back. Wiz blinked his big brown Cavalier King Charles spaniel eyes, then smacked his lips as if he’d just had a yummy treat.
Dot grinned to herself. That was at least the seventh time Dad had said that.
“All right, darling?” said Dot’s mum Suzie, turning round too and smiling. She looked specially nice today, Dot thought – she was wearing a white top with a square neck, the one Bill her dad had bought in Switzerland on a business trip.
It had little birds and butterflies embroidered round the neck. Dot fancied wearing it but it’d be too big.
Bill had brought her back a big sweatshirt embroidered with clocks and some of the most DER-licious chocolate she’d ever tasted, so she couldn’t complain (even though Wiz had stolen the last four squares when she’d left it on her desk for just a moment!)
But she still liked that top…
“Ah – HA!” said Dad.
They’d turned the last corner in the long road under the trees, and now Wilhelmina’s wheels were making that scrunching, hissing noise cars do when they drive on gravel. It always made Dot think of posh people like the Queen in big shiny black cars, somehow.
In front of them was a huge house, with ivy growing up the walls, all built in stone coloured like honey on warm toast. It glowed in the morning sun. The windows had little squares on them, and there were at least twelve tall chimneys made out of patterned brick. Underneath them, the roof had lots of gables with more windows – all pointed like witches’ hats.
The front door was huge too, three times as tall as Dad even, in dark old wood criss-crossed with big metal studs, and three giant hinges, stretching nearly all the way across it.
And there was the sign.
‘DENDRINGHAM HALL’ it said. ‘14th CENTURY HOME OF THE d’AUBERLEY FAMILY’. And underneath, in that funny-looking writing called Gothic: ‘BRITAIN’S FIRST INTERACTIVE STATELY HOME’.
“Cool!” said Dot. Wiz stood up and gave himself a shake.
That was why they’d come – not just because it was a stately home (Mum loved them) but because it was interactive – if your brought a laptop or a PDA with you, you could Wi-Fi it or plug it in in every room, and see what the room had looked like through the ages – complete with actors in costume pretending to be the d’Auberley family, and their servants and visitors.
Each room “did” every century – right back to the fourteenth when the house had first been built – through to the Civil War, when it had been attacked by Cromwell’s soldiers because the d’Auberleys had sided with the king, and right up to the 20th century, when two of the sons of the family had flown Spitfires in the Battle of Britain.
So Dot had brought her laptop and her mouse (and a mains lead) with her, to try it out. It sounded like fun! She thought she fancied the 14th century first, because you could see men in armour.
Just to check, while Mum and Dad were getting stuff out of the boot – they were going to have a picnic in the grounds later – Dot switched the laptop on and plugged her mouse in.
“We’re just going to get the tickets” said Dad, slamming the boot and crunching off across the gravel to a little wooden hut, hand in hand with Mum.
“OK!” said Dot. She grinned to herself. She knew Mum wasn’t going just to keep Dad company - Suzie wanted to make sure they bought the biggest and best guide book to the Hall. She had a huge collection of them at home and always wanted more!
As the laptop “woke up”, the mouse did too, and became Mr Mouse – her cheeky Canadian guide to the internet, the one who could set them off net-voyaging with just a click on his backpack.
Mr Mouse gave himself a BIG stretch, then hopped up on the top edge of the laptop and looked out of the car window.
“Oh my, oh MY!” he said excitedly. “That is just so historic!”
