Chapter 39

Cole

A ‘Sold’ sign had appeared outside Highfield Hall less than a week after I had nearly been caught trespassing, and then just a couple of weeks later it became alive with a swarm of activity.

There were diggers and bulldozers, cranes and cement mixers, and lots of other machinery that I didn’t even know the name of.

It broke my heart a little to see my peaceful haven being so disrupted.

I peered daily over the wall, to see what they were doing, but I never ventured inside.

As time passed, the warning my dad gave me seemed to diminish in significance, as many threats from parents do, but I knew I would have to have a death wish to go into the grounds while there was so much work going on.

Two months later, and most of the external work on the Hall had been completed, and they were now working on the inside.

The heavy machinery had gone, and in its place was a renovated building that had been brought back to life, back to its former glory.

As much as I resented the intrusion, I coul