Dot and her mum and dad are being shown round a stately home caked Dendringham Hall. It’s all getting a bit boring for Dot (and her dad) – but it’s about to get VERY interesting…
“Now HERE” said the lady guide “is what is so SPECIAL about Dendringham Hall!”
She pointed to a desk with some plugs and cables on it.
“THIS is our interactive point. If you plug your laptop computer in here, you can see the room just as it was in the olden times. Lots of different olden times, in fact! You just choose your century, and away you go! Who’d like to try?”
“I know someone who would!” said Suzie. “Come on Dot!”
Bill Com sighed and rolled his eyes. He could see that coffee fading away…
Dot went red as she felt all the other visitors looking at her – but it was true, she did want a go.
She sat down at the desk and plugged her laptop in and logged on. Dee dah dah dee went the little tune.
While it was booting up, she plugged Mr Mouse in too. He made a sort of grumbling noise – he’d been having a nap in her computer bag – but he knew better than to come out and show himself with all these people about.
“Of course” said the guide “We would normally have our own computer here too, but it’s being mended. As usual!” She shook her head. “That’s why we say you can always bring your own if you like!”
“Bing-ding!” Up came a video of the Grand Drawing Room on Dot’s computer screen. The title said ‘September 24th, 1896: The Grand Drawing Room.’
It looked just the same… but different somehow. And it was full of people – gentlemen in high white collars and tweedy clothes like their guide, ladies in long richly-coloured dresses with their hair piled up on their heads sitting on the very same chairs – Dot could even see the big Chesterfield sideboard, looking a lot newer.
Behind the posh ladies and gentlemen stood lots of people who looked like the Hall’s servants - the women in long black dresses with white aprons, and the men in black suits. One of them had a striped black and yellow waistcoat on; another one wore a long coat and a flat hat and held a shotgun; yet another wore leather boots and a funny little round hat, and carried a whip.
All the people were standing and sitting in the left of the picture. It was a big picture - you could see the whole of the room. Some of them were frowning… some were looking down at the floor… one gentleman was even picking his teeth, rude! And one of the older ladies was doing some embroidery.
Just like Nan thought Dot, with her needle going in and out of some material in a round frame, making a pattern. It looked like birds and flowers but it was hard to tell.
But whatever they were doing, they weren’t talking.
They were all looking towards a man who was though.
He was a funny-looking man. He was tall and thin, and wore a long kind of cape which nearly went down to the floor, His hair was black and slicked back. He had a big nose which made him look like a hawk. And his eyes were dark, and very large – and he was looking very hard at all the people in the drawing room as he spoke.
Dot was on her own – everyone had looked at first, but now the guide lady had taken them all off to another corner of the room, where there was a huge glass-fronted cabinet full of silver. She could see Mum was more interested than ever – poor Dad!
Slowly, the strange man’s voice got louder, so that Dot could hear what he was saying.
“So, my Lord and Lady d’Auberley, ladies and gentlemen” he was saying. “We have more questions now than answers. Strange things have been happening here at the Hall – stranger still since I came at the invitation of Lady Christabel. At the moment, my friend and I are baffled. What to do – what to do?”
Then Dot’s heart missed a beat – because suddenly the camera zoomed into the strange man’s face and he turned to look at right at her, almost as if he was about to jump out of the screen.
He smiled, and raised his eyebrows. Then he spoke – looking straight into Dot’s eyes.
“Can you solve the mystery of Dendringham Hall?”
