As we are loading all our stuff in the car, the cats are checking it thoroughly to make sure there are no bombs or tracking devices on the car. Just then an older man came up wearing a blue jacket and said that he would be our driver today and take us to the Golden Wing Inn. Kat and I looked at each other, but since this fit with everything else, I decided to let him do the driving. It was a beautiful drive through some English countryside so it really didn’t seem like 3 hours. It was 6pm as we arrived at the Golden Wing Inn. Our driver helped us carry our luggage up to our room on the second floor.

Then he handed me keys to a different car which he said was around back of the Inn. “It should be a sunny day tomorrow,” said our driver, “but watch out for those dark clouds that can come up suddenly from nowhere.” Then he added just as he left, “the road ahead is like a beautiful painting, but warriors from the castle are found everywhere.” Then he left in a hurry. “Hmm, he was giving us clues and a warning,” I said to Kat. “Yes,” she answered, “twice on the warnings, I guess that means we shouldn’t trust anyone from now on.” “Yep, that’s it exactly,” I said, as I plugged in my scrambler, “not even the people at the Inn.”

“That’s too bad,” said Kat, “the lady downstairs seemed to be so genuinely nice too.” “It’s possible she is and may not be involved in this at all,” I said, “but we still can’t take chances. The cats had been checking the room but found no listening devices or cameras. That’s good at least, so maybe the people here are not involved in our case. We went down and had some dinner, and our cats were allowed to be with us as long as no one complained. There was only two other people in the dining room, sitting together. They were two men, in their 30s, and I don’t think they stopped talking the whole time we were there. They had just finished eating when we arrived and they were still there when we went back to our room.

The only time they looked at us is when we left the dining room. They gave me an uneasy feeling though. Kat and the cats said the same thing. Interesting that we all agreed on that. The cats took turns watching our car out the window, to see if anyone went near it during the night, but no one did. We actually had a very comfortable sleep that night. It did start off nice and sunny the next morning and we had a nice breakfast, um, well, except for the coffee. Maybe next time I will offer to make the coffee. “Will you be exploring the countryside today?”, the woman asked.

“Yes,” said Kat, “we are just going to drive around for a while this morning and see what we can find.” “Just a little ways down the road you will see a small country road on the right,” said the woman, “there is a nice old castle that dates back to the 14th century.” “Thank you,” said Kat cheerfully, “we’ll certainly check that out.” “It looks so nice atop that hill when the sky is blue,” she said, “but some say that ghosts roaming that castle is true.” And off she went. We went back to our room to get our backpacks, and then went down to inspect our car. “One of those men is watching us out the window from their room,” said Kat. “That’s interesting,” I said without looking, “but perhaps he was just looking and saw us down here.”

“He seems to be watching too intently,” she added. “You’re catching on Kat,” I said, “that’s good.” She just smiled. The cats couldn’t find anything wrong with the car so we were soon off for a nice drive. It really wasn’t far to that other road so I turned down there and drove slowly so we could enjoy the beauty like good tourists should do. But we were looking for that house with the golden wing on the side, not the castle, at least not yet. Finally we saw our first house on this road, and right where it should be too. I stopped in front of it but the place looked deserted. I drove in the gravel driveway, which was in very good condition, and that was odd. It went around back of the house and I stopped. At least no one would see us from the road. Meow,meow=I saw face at window…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.