3 Herald Manor

   Herald Manor had at one time been the epicenter of a large estate built by an industrialist from London in 1873. Making his fortune in steel production and textile manufacturing, Geoffrey Herald had the Elizabethan style mansion built for his wife, Lenora and two sons, Calvin and Thaddeus, some thirty kilometers south of Manchester. Spurning the architectural trend of the day, Geoffrey had preferred the sprawling stonework house over conventional Victorian design. When construction had finished, a house of immense size and innumerable rooms stood where only sheep pastures had been some two years prior. From this central vantage point, Geoffrey could monitor his business affairs between the mills in Manchester and Birmingham, and the shipping ports in Liverpool.

   The surrounding farmlands and villages thrived in the new economy generated by the house. The estate’s need for groundskeepers, gardeners, stable hands and the like, and also for the produce and livestock it purchased from local farms, kept the local folk very well pleased with the symbiotic relationship they now shared with the Herald fortunes. The domestic staff were brought in from London, of course, and the kitchens were manned by only the finest French chefs, one of which carried in his luggage a distant ancestor of a certain mouse. Geoffrey was well respected by the locals and Lenora thrived in the fresh country air of England. She had contracted cholera some years before and could no longer live in the stifling, coal polluted air of London. This was the first and most important reason for Geoffrey’s decision to spare no expense in building a paradise for his beloved wife, away from the filth and disease of the city.

   It had proved to be a wise choice as Lenora regained her health rapidly and Calvin and Thaddeus had acre upon acre of rolling, timbered hills and valleys to explore in their youth. Geoffrey’s business ventures had always proved fortuitous, and year by year, Geoffrey’s once abundant wealth now grew to truly staggering amounts.

   It had been a custom of Geoffrey’s to, once a month, sit Lenora down facing the mirror at her bedroom vanity, and instruct her to close her eyes. Once satisfied that she had complied, Geoffrey would stand behind and adorn her with necklaces of the finest craftsmanship, breathtaking in their luster and intricacy. It was this same humble vanity that Lenora had insisted on keeping throughout their marriage, for on the night of their wedding, in the bottom of the top right drawer she had impetuously carved her newly acquired initials into the wood with a penknife. L. K. H. Lenora Katherine Herald. Even though she was not a superstitious woman, Lenora still secretly kept to herself the belief that as long as this piece of furniture remained a part of her daily life, her marriage to this wonderful man would prevail. And it did. The boys grew to manhood and went off into the world as young men are prone to do, and Geoffrey and Lenora lived out their life in a bliss of prosperity and love.

   Time passed, and the fate of all men overtook them both, with Geoffrey dying in 1895, and Lenora passing in 1901. Geoffrey, who had been so adept at keeping his affairs in order, had enough resources in trust to keep the property well maintained well into the next century. It has remained in the Herald family throughout, even to this day, although it is now seldom visited by any descendant of Geoffrey and Lenora’s. Now the vast property is maintained by only a wizened, old caretaker and his bulbous, black cat.

With time, the manor’s furnishings were sold at auction with the exception of a few miscellaneous items that had little worth on the market. These pieces were simply taken to the manor’s cellars and forgotten.

   Among them was a little vanity with a broken, cloudy mirror hanging askew from it’s frame. It had been shoved into a dark and emptied wine cellar and rests there even now as a lone small figure makes its way to it in the darkness.