1 The Castle Origin

The warm early summer sun’s rays seemed to lazily find their way through the puffy clouds that were slowly floating on the gentle morning breeze. The clear dark blue waters of the river flowed smoothly past on its way toward the sea that was at least seven days away. A small part of the river was diverted to the point where a rotating bucket lift powered by two persons who continuously walked on rotating steps to lift the water up to the mote around Star Castle.

The land north, south, east, and west as far as the eye could see and well beyond was held by Knight Gerrit Van Gesterte. He in essence was the king of this vast area. He had a small force of knights under his command that he used to keep all the serfs in check. He rewarded his knights well. They received a stipend in gold, they were fed, were given horses, and were allowed to select any woman in the surrounding area that they wished to serve them. He had made it a policy that when one of his men wanted, they could reject the woman and then select another if they desired. The only stipulation was that if they had children, then the that knight had to make sure his children were fed. He found that his knights seemed comfortable with that arrangement.

He had listened repeatedly to the complaints from some of the serf’s village leaders. He had asked if the children were getting fed and if they were he asked what more they wanted. He always provided the village an extra amount of grain and the complaint was quieted.

He was now leaning on his two hands that were resting on the recently finished top wall of Ster Kasteel. It had taken ten years to get the castle built to this point. He was looking down to the river that was crowded by the many merchant vessels going up and down the river. He took note of his tax collection boats approaching and getting paid the tax for passing at this point in their journey. He knew that his larger enforcement boat loaded with young bow armed warriors would catch any boat not willing to pay the tax. They would then demand thirty percent more or they would kill the boat’s captain. That had only happened once so far. The word had gone out about the consequence of not paying the tax and the collection had become routine. Some vessels had tried to go past at night to no avail. He had a series of torches continuously burning on the other side of the river and had his tax collectors watching for boats trying to go past at night.

The tax was slowly replenishing his precarious finances and he planned on building a nest egg that would carry him and his family well into the future.

He had strained his finances to have the castle built. He had designed the star shaped twelve-meter-high base and its twelve-meter-deep mote so that a small contingent of knights would be able to defend the castle against almost any army. He hoped that such a situation would never happen.

He had designed two chutes along each star wall where hot burning oil or hot water could be poured down on any attackers that might get to the wall. They would only be able to get there through the arrows and spears that would be continuously raining down on them.

The two entrance gates were two hands thick and six meters high. The wall above it was at the same height as the star walls and had three chutes that allowed hot oil to be poured across the entire entrance.

He had designed living quarters for all of his small contingent of knights. The Knights and their mates were provided with a place to live, food and a small stipend for protecting the castle, cleaning and cooking and doing a variety of the many chores required to keep the castle operational.

He and his family lived in the castle proper that rose seven stories into the sky. He was now standing on the seventh level. There was one more room that rose on the very center tower of the castle above all else. He often sat at this highest level and enjoyed the breeze that came from the west through the openings that provided a circular view of the entire countryside. Those days were few, but all were memorable.

The wall he was standing on went from a circular tower at the base of each star point and formed the highest level which served as the ultimate fighting location in case the castle had somehow been breached.

He had designed a six-by-six-meter water tank close to each tower that was two meters deep. It caught the rainwater. Channels leading from it watered the flower beds at each level and provided drinking water to all levels below. These tanks were normally kept full by the rains. Having the tanks at the seventh level saved a tremendous amount of work. He was sure that they had paid for themselves in the reduction of staff that would have had to carry water up all the flights.

He had also designed a very large water tank at the entrance level that was fed by spring water. He always had one large container of that water at hand wherever he happened to be in the castle. It was one of his self-indulgences.

The raised flower bed around this entrance water tank hid the tank from view. His guests always wondered where he got all his smooth sweet tasting water. He always joked that it became sweet when he dipped his finger into the water from the river.

He was recognized as a shrewd trader in his own rights. He focused his trade on the top tier goods in clothing, exotic fruits and top whiskeys and liqueurs. This did not generate as much income as the taxes, but it was the icing on the cake of a luxurious life.

He had a very lovely wife and had six children with her, which he enjoyed on a daily basis. He also had a few children with several other women who he supported but seldom interacted with.

He enjoyed his life well beyond what he had ever expected.

Knight Gerrit Van Gesterte lived well beyond the normal life expectancy of the year 986 AD. He outlived most of his children, but his line continued for more than three hundred years.

Then a group of roque knights from the Saxony region surprised the unprepared family and took over control of Star Castle. They and their descendants operated Star Castle’s still lucrative but declining tax business for another three hundred years. Then they rapidly lost control of the tax collection because the transport vessels increased in size and were able to arm themselves with small cannons. Once that happened the focus turned to the still lucrative import business.

The descendants were able to live off the import business that had grown but it in no way matched the easy money that had been made by collecting taxes. The castle continued to be the dominant force in the area.

Then in fifteen eighty-six the family had to summit to the rule of the Spanish. The table was turned. They were now the ones who had to pay the taxes for the goods they were importing. When one member of the family was hanged for not doing so, the other members made sure to let the authorities know that they were complying.

For the next one hundred fifty years the descends of the rogue knights were ruled by the Spanish branch of the Hapsburgs.

Then around Seventeen forty the Star Castle family once again flourished as they participated in an active trading business and enjoyed the wealth, they were able to generate when The Netherlands became one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. The family of that period built several ships and were part of the Golden Age of The Netherlands and they were able to once again generate the wealth that would carry them through many years.

The power of the Netherland declined, and the Golden Age ended. However, the Star Castle family had amassed a huge nest egg that would carry them through another two hundred years.

Then the fate of Star Castle became one of decline as it regularly changed owners and a continuous slow decline in its structural integrity seemed to act like the spread of a cancer.

The last family to own Star Castle held on through two World wars. That period saw the family slowly pass on until in early in the twenty-first century only an old couple and one loyal servant remained.

The servant and the husband passed on first and then there was only one. One aging woman who lived alone in a sprawling empty castle. A castle that was now well deteriorated and badly in need of repair.

She was befriended by a seemingly friendly Vajen de Vries. Vajen had her own vision of how to use Star Castle to generate her own wealth and like the roque knights from Saxony who killed the owners of Star Castle she poisoned and killed the person who she thought was the last to own the Castle.

It was a different time and she had to make sure that she was not caught. She was not a sword swinging knight of old, she was a much more devious evil soul that chose to use an undetectable poison.

She had killed the old lady and had not even been suspected of doing so. The coroner had declared the death as heart stoppage due to age. He did not suspect foul play. She had used a poison that after a few hours was undetectable. She had plenty left over. She smiled as she thought about the fact that she had committed the perfect crime.

She stood at almost the same spot as the original builder of the castle, looking out to the small river that made its way towards the sea. She was contemplating how she was going to keep control of Star Castle. She knew what she wanted to do but she did not have the power or the wealth that the original builder had. She had to somehow get the funding to do what she wanted.

She had befriended and then killed the person who she thought was the last remaining owner. The owner was a frail ailing eighty-five-year-old, lonely woman who had come to realize that she could no longer afford to keep and maintain Star Castle. The old lady considered herself royalty but in fact was just the last member of a very wealthy family whose wealth had slowly and steadily decreased.

Vajen had inquired about relatives or other people that might have a claim to the castle. When it seemed that there were no descendants to worry about, she had explored ways to gain control of the castle. She first managed to convince the old lady to give her the power of attorney. Then she began to explore ways to speed her exit into the next world.

She learned about a drug that would induce a heart attack and would be undetectable after a few hours. Once she found the source of it in one of the Eastern bloc countries, she made a special trip to obtain it. Then she slowly gave the old lady enough each day until she had a heart attack. She waited until the next morning to “discover” the old lady’s death and then called the police to report the death.

Now she was trying hard to be the one that acquired the castle. She had grown up always hearing from her parents how poor they were and that if it was not for the government providing health care and the child subsistence help, they would all have been dead long ago. She had gone to school always using hand me down clothes that her parents got from their friends.

She had been caught several times shoplifting or stealing sweet goods during her teen years.

She had then concentrated on doing well in school and had entered a trade school that trained her to fill a support role such as a secretary or clerk.

Her shoplifting skills had improved, and she outfitted herself in a few top fashions.

After a few years she transitioned into selling properties where she not only charged the highest commission possible but always included several thousand dollars of additional fees. She became very good at inflating the asking price and thereby getting the top commission.

It was a salary that had put her at the higher end of incomes, but she was not satisfied and was constantly on the search for how to make more.

Star Castle provided her with the opportunity to catapult her to the status of being wealthy.

She had submitted a proposal to the country’s Tourism board and highlighted how the castle could be a boon to the area and employ dozens of people. She hope to get them to offer some financial aid. She had also submitted the same information to the department of Historical and Cultural Safeguarding in hopes of getting their approval.

She was currently awaiting for a reply from both. When she got approval, she would go after more finances to make the grounds into to a series of money-making shops, restaurants, and night spots. If she got approval, she was sure she would be able to get that financial support.

She hired a grounds keeper to spruce up the five hundred acres around the castle and to reactivate the flower gardens inside the castle. This would let her point out the improvements she was already making.

She had found the person who she thought was perfect for the job. The person, Aleta, was an ex-legal assistant that wanted to get a job where she was not reporting to a boss that took advantage of her. Vajen identified with this train of thought. She, however, paid her at the bottom end of the pay scale for the kind of work she would be doing knowing that she was taking advantage of the young woman.

She had walked around with Aleta and learned that she had grown up on a vegetable farm bordering a small river in the middle of the Netherlands.

Aleta shared that the castle overlooked a river about the same size as the one she had fished in and boated on. She added that the small village near Star Castle that had only about three thousand inhabitants was almost the same size as the village near her parent’s farm.

Vajen looked around the top floor of the castle where she was standing and took in the puffy short purple flowers that bordered taller bright yellow blooming flowers that now were growing in each of the six large flag stone flowerpots. She had also been impressed with the entrance courtyard that now had a stunning red and yellow rose garden trimmed by the same purple flowers all in full bloom.

She had complemented Aleta for having accomplished the transformation while keeping the cost so reasonable.

Aleta had let her know that she had purchased the flowers from one of her father’s friends who had given her a special rate. He had even delivered the flowers and helped plant them. It was his expertise and his helper that had made the rapid transformation possible.

Vajen had studied the history of Star Castle and was writing a series of information sheets that she thought she could use when she made the castle a tourist spot.

She imagined the time, some nine hundred years ago, when the first owner had the castle built on a fortified star-shaped base with a deep mote surrounding it. The owner had built the castle so his personal army could hold the castle against any attackers. The star shape was meant to pull the attackers into a position were arrows and spears could be thrown down from two sides to decimate the attackers. He had also set up locations where boiling oil or water could be poured down on the attackers. There was no record of the castle ever being attacked so she did not know if any battles had ever taken place.

The part of the castle that became the living area was built in the center on top of the stare shaped base. It had one round tower located at the base where the actual star shape went out to shape the star point. She thought it had been a genius design. There were a series of independently standing small houses where the servants and other lay persons, who served the lord of the castle and his family, resided.

This first owner of the castle had become exceptionally wealthy by collecting taxes of any commercial vessels traveling the river. That wealth allowed him to virtually be the king of a small portion of what would become the Netherlands.

Much of the stone for building the castle was obtained from the digging of the mote but a huge amount had come from the river. The river water was used to keep the mote filled. But a natural spring brought water up and was delivered to a holding tank that was in the center of the entrance rose garden. This tank had been one of the first things the last owners had kept in good repair. Vajen figured that plumbing could be installed and routed throughout the castle when she had control of it.

She had learned that the castle had stayed with the first owner’s family for several hundred years and had continued to keep the family wealthy.

Then in some confrontation a group of German warriors had surprised the folks in the castle by walking in through the open gates and had killed all of its occupants. These warriors used the Castle as their party place, a place to make money by enforcing the taxing of the commerce vessels traveling the river with goods and a place far enough away from their own enemies that it made for a good place to retreat.

During the time of the warriors the partying was legendary and was described in several accounts that talked about the food, the drinking, and the fact that much of the drinking and eating spilled out to the entrance bridge and bones were thrown into the mote. There were also tales of people that were killed in fights being thrown in with chains wrapped around them to keep them down.

Vajen wondered if those stories were true and wondered if the mote was excavated and what would be found.

Then the trade routes had changed, and the river traffic had declined, and the castle lost its importance as a collector of taxes.

During both World Wars the castle had been used by the German army as their headquarters. It proved to be a good location from where they could control the Netherlands.

Vajen was fascinated to learn that much of the German army that had circumvented the famous French Maginot Line had traveled through the Netherlands.

The castle’s more recent ownership had changed every few hundred years and the castle had slowly fallen into disrepair.

Vajen envisioned the property being turned into a park. She figured that she would put in food concession stands, a variety of children-oriented venues and a variety of adult venues such as a beer garden, bars that featured entertainment and allowed gambling. She figured she would not have to spend a penny of her own money but would be able to demand a percentage.

She thought the property had great beauty, but it was the thought of making money and making her wealthy that drove her.

She had no idea that what she saw as her path to victory would turn out to be a Pyrrhic Victory.

While she waited for the approval of her proposals she was surprised when a distant cousin, of the old lady, turned up and claimed the ownership of Star Castle. When he met her, he let her know that he was interested in selling the Star Castle and the property. He had no desire to own it.

She had wanted to eliminate him but there was no way to do so and not get caught.

He was currently pushing her to advertise more broadly, and she had complied by putting small advertisements in several newspapers in the US, in South Africa and Brazil. She complied but in a minimalist way.

She continued to try to figure out how she could end up with the castle and the property.

She heard little from any of the advertising and hoped that she would land the support of the local development board before she had to face any competition from overseas.

Then she got a letter from a Lisa Roberts asking about the castle. She delayed the response for several weeks until she got a text from Lisa. She then answered the letter letting her know that the Castle asking price was two point five million dollars. She had pushed the asking price up by a million dollars and hoped that would discourage any additional questions.

All was quiet for a few weeks and then Lisa asked if she and the family could come and get a look at the castle.

There was no way to say no that would not expose her subterfuge. She gave her a date only a few days out hoping that it would be too close for flight reservations. She was disappointed to learn that Lisa agreed and said that the date fit her family’s plans.

Figuring out how to discourage Lisa from thinking about buying the castle became the focus of her thinking.

She thought about telling Lisa that there was a huge tax that the government put on foreign buyers.

She thought of hiring some thugs to confront and beat up her and her husband. She was aware of several gangs that would likely be willing to do so if she offered the right incentive.

She figured that perhaps she could use the poison she had used on the old lady on this Lisa.

She remembered the stories about the castle being haunted and decided to resurrect that ghost.

She figured Aleta might fall for that and share it with Lisa.

She decided to implement all of her ideas. She was determined to get control of Star Castle. And she was sure she would be able to do so at all cost.

2 The Meaning of it All

Lisa held the picture of she, her parents and her younger brother who had died of acute leukemia. The picture had been taken when she was fourteen and her brother was twelve. At the time neither of the two knew that he would be gone in less than a year. They were standing on a dock at Greenwood Lake just before going fishing on a boat her parents had rented. She remembered that her brother, Jason, had caught the biggest fish that anyone in the family had ever caught. They took it home and her mother baked it with its head on. She had the picture of Jason holding the fish when they returned to the dock. It was one of her favorite pictures. It was less than a year later that he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. The needed transfusions became very frequent. She was holding one of his hands and her mother the other when he died in his bed at home. She still recalled the feeling of utter remorse and sadness of that day.

It was devasting to her. Her parents were distraught, but they decided that they would all go back to the lake that Jason had loved because of the fish that he had caught there. She was the one that caught the biggest fish that day. Her mother cooked the exact meal that she had cooked for Jason. The table was set with four plates. She served the meal and made sure Jason had food on his plate. She remembered crying as her father said a prayer wishing a happy life for Jason.

She still though often about her younger years and the wonderful life that she lived. She had grown up in a working middle-class family and by those standard her current lifestyle was a decadent one. Her mother was a legal secretary, and her father was a successful independent plumber. After Jason’s death the family seemed to come closer together and every weekend was spent in some short of outing or other family event. During the summer and early fall it was a picnic or a trip camping, water skiing, fishing, and hiking at one of the many parks in New York State. During the winter it was skiing, ice skating, or spending time discussing the current book that they were reading. She had been blessed with great parents. She wished dearly that her brother would have lived to grow up with her.

Her parents were now both retired and still living in the family home where she had grown up. She visited them almost every month. Her daughters were spoiled when they went there and got whatever they wanted. Both Laura and Lillian loved their two grandparents and were always eager to go for a visit.

She figured that perhaps her early life that she had enjoyed so much might be the reason for her current uneasiness.

Her family had shared many wonderful experiences, it was a much simpler life than the one her family was currently living.

She put down the picture of her brother and looked out of the patio through the large six-foot-high surrounding windows, at the family’s sixty-two-foot sailing yacht at the end of the pier. She took in the blue waters of South Oyster Bay that divided Long Island from Connecticut. It had a slightly darker color than the clear blue sky that was currently filled with high puffy cumulus clouds. It reminded her of a scene from the movie Soylent Green where the most beautiful scenes where shown to a person just before they died. It all was gorgeous.

She, however, was not standing to enjoy the view, she was contemplating what it all meant. She knew that by all the standards of her peer group she and her family were wealthy. Why then was she not jubilantly happy and why was she thinking that her family needed a change. She smiled at the thought that it was not wealth but great relations that made her happy. She had those great relations and decided that unhappiness was the wrong way to described her current discontent. It was her concern for the future wellbeing of her family that was causing her concern.

She turned and walked back into her living room that had been decorated by a very talented interior decorator and looked very much like a page featured in one of the interior decorator magazines. It was kept immaculately clean by a cleaning crew that came in once a week. This made her family life much easier, but she realized that it was also a symbol of the decadence that was now so concerning to her.

She realized that she had guided her family to practice many of the things her mother had done to make her young life fulfilling. It had just been on a larger and grander and more decadent scale. They snow skied in all the major ski resorts across the country. They had visited many of the National parks where they had camped out but camped out in air-conditioned tents that had viewing windows on the top so you could lie and watch the stars. They had boated and fished but from their sixty-two-foot sailing yacht.

She knew that she had instilled the right philosophy into her two daughters.

Her family was very close so in that respect she had been successful, but she wondered if in the long run she had missed the mark. She wanted to have the family continue to enjoy the atmosphere of respect and love that she sensed they all had. She, however, saw the stress of their success slowly chipping away at that atmosphere.

She and each family member took responsibility to prepare a family dinner each day. But they all had well-paying professional jobs that took up most of their time. So quite often the person whose turn it was to cook would have the dinner delivered. Each of the family had selected several restaurants whose menus provided a good variety, and the meals were always great.

She had cornered the Asian menu with Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants that delivered great meals. When it was her turn, she would select a variety of items off one of the menus and set up her family dinner.

Craig had captured the Italian menu. He did something similar and though he had kept his focus narrow, his dinners were often the most liked. If you liked Italian food, his dinners were always the best.

Laura had the Indian menu, and her mix was always interesting and quite good. Lisa however was not a fan of the heavy Indian spicing. So, she often ate a log of nan and chicken.

Lillian had the Irish, German, and Spanish menus. She was the one that had the greatest variety of dinners. Her dinners were always great though many of them were on the heavy side and usually required extra time jogging or doing exercise.

Having a good meal was never an issue because all of them had also become accomplished in cooking great meals. Most of the time each of them only cooked one meal per month and the rest was ordered in.

Lisa considered all of them professionally successful.

She was a partner in a very successful law practice. Her office did a booming business and it required much more than a forty-hour work week. She was well compensated and most likely could have provided all the money the family needed.

Craig had a very successful engineering company that had a large multiyear contract with the city of New York. He almost always spent several hours at home each evening doing the prep work for some meeting or other.

Laura, her oldest, had a Master of Engineering degree and was working for her father as one of the lead project engineers. In the evening she was often in conversation with him about some detail about her current project.

Lillian, the youngest, had a Finance degree, and was keeping the books for Craig’s consulting firm. Lillian claimed she was working for the best boss she could think of. She did not bring her work home but was often the last to make it to their evening dinner. She had a hectic day almost every day of the week and then closing the books every month really stretched her day and she often went in during the wee hours of the morning.

Lillian claimed she was working for the best boss she could think of.

Lisa tended to agree with Lillian about Craig being a great boss.

Craig was a rock that bonded the family together with his lighthearted attitude that exuded the caring nature that made him loved by his friends and admired by all of his staff.

His business was booming, and he paid his staff well. He had a profit-sharing plan that was generous and basically was a set of golden handcuffs. He was proud of his one hundred percent employee retention rate. He easily took the teasing from them about his being a generous nepotist and had something to tease each of his staff of fifty employees.

He was actively diversifying his customer base to ensure long-term business continuity. He anticipated that at some point he might lose his biggest customer and was acting during the good times to broaden his business service base.

He also insisted that each of his employees participated in some sort of self-enrichment activities of their choosing.

She had attended his company’s poolside cookouts and had sailed with him with some of his employees and knew that he had an extremely loyal set of employees.

She envied the environment he had created at his workplace.

She knew that the family was trapped in a golden glove mouse trap. They were maintaining a lifestyle that would never give them their own time to relax and just absorb the beauty of the world around them.

She yearned for a lifestyle that kept the family together but allowed each of them the time and space to enjoy each other and have time with their friends.

She wanted her two daughters to meet someone that would be their soul mates. She wanted them to have the same relationship that she and Craig enjoyed. She was concerned that would never happen if something did not change.

She thought about what type of business they could all share that would give them that space.

The idea of running a lucrative bed and breakfast took shape and she began looking in magazines and newspapers for large homes or suitable buildings in some unique location. She wanted something out of the ordinary that the family could turn into a lifetime project. The search seemed to go on and unsuccessfully on.

She was ready to throw in the towel on that idea when she saw a small three by six-inch advertisement that featured a place in The Netherlands that was referred to as Star Castle. It caught her eye, and she immediately sent a text to the person who had placed the ad. She waited a week waiting for a response and then when she got none she decided to call.

She was surprised to get through. She spoke to Vajen de Vries the realtor and asked about Star Castle. It seemed to her that Vajen was less than anxious to make the sale. She had to ask all the questions about the castle and pull to get the sales price. She was surprised at the asking price of two and a half million dollars. She was not sure what the market price was on a castle.

She knew that she would have to see the property and the castle to know if it was a fair price and if it fit into the category of a family project. The call ended with her asking when she could see the castle.

She was not ready to share her idea of a castle made into a bed and breakfast with her family so instead she suggested a vacation in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. It pleased her that the family bought in and even thought the idea of going there in two weeks for a two-week vacation was acceptable.

The two weeks would let her get a firsthand look at the castle to determine if it had the potential to be the project that she thought it might be.

She called Vajen to let her know that she would meet her in two weeks and asked about a place nearby where they could stay. She was informed that the village near the castle was small and perhaps she might consider driving in from a larger city.

Lisa chose to get the telephone numbers of the two small hotels in the village. She wanted to stay close to the castle to get a feel for the surrounding area.

She called her office’s support and asked her to arrange round-trip first-class tickets to Amsterdam for the entire family. Normally she would have worked for weeks to get as low of a price for tickets as possible but in this case, she figured it was easier to just have someone else do it.

She smiled about the fact that she was using her wealth to make things easier on herself. Her mother would have labeled her as a wealthy person using wealth as the lever that most people had no access to.

She was not surprised when Craig asked what her real reason was for her to immediately schedule the trip. He pointed out that usually she would ponder a vacation location and spend almost six months figuring out when the best time would be on everyone’s schedule and then scout around for the lowest priced tickets. This he pointed out was a very different behavior.

She confessed that she had an ulterior motive. She shared the fact that she was planning to look at a castle that was for sale. She told him she was planning to check it out to see if it had the potential, she hoped it might have.

Craig laughed and asked how much castles were selling for and gave a small whistle when she mentioned two and a half million dollars. He asked what condition the castle was in and what she was planning to do with a castle.

She said that she wanted to get a feel for the condition and if it could be used for the idea she had. She confessed that it might cost another couple of million to refurbish it and get it into the condition necessary to attract paying guests.

Craig shook his head and said that would certainly cause the family some cash flow challenges.

Craig then asked if she was planning to hire someone to manage the castle.

That was when she shared that she was thinking that perhaps it would be a family project and they would be the ones to make the improvements and manage the castle.

He said that he would support her but suggested that she share her idea with the two girls to see if they were interested in such a venture.

She agreed that she would do so on the coming weekend. She added that she wanted to do a little online checking before sharing her idea.

She went online to see what she could find out more about Star Castle. There was a brief description of the castle and a picture that did not show much but the entrance area.

In the ad she found the phone number for the groundskeeper. She wondered why that had been included in the ad but figured that person might give her some additional information.

She placed the call. It was answered in Dutch, and she let the person who answered know that she did not speak Dutch and asked if she spoke English.

The person at the other end switched to an almost perfect US English and introduced herself as Aleta Mulder and asked how she might be of help.

Lisa explained her interest in Star Castle, and the property that came with it and what physical condition the castle was in.

Aleta explained that she was not the person responsible for the sale of the castle and she would get Ms. De Vries to call her back.

Lisa let her know that she had talked to that person, but she wanted to hear from a person that had hands-on experience on the grounds and in the castle.

Aleta was silent for a moment and then she explained that she had started her job as a keeper only a few months before, but she had fallen in love with the castle and with the property it sat on. She shared the fact that she was raised on a vegetable farm, had become what in America was called a legal secretary and after a few years realized that she hated what she was doing. Now she was back doing what she loved.

She then said that for the last six months she had cleaned out much of the wild brush that had started to take over the grounds and she had planted flowers in all of the castle’s flower beds. She said she was proud of the change of appearance that she had made on the property and in the castle.

Lisa liked what she heard, and she enjoyed the enthusiasm that Aleta had about the castle and what she was doing. If she bought the property, she would make sure that Aleta would continue to be the groundskeeper.

She thanked Aleta and said that she looked forward to meeting her in person and planned to be there in the next couple of weeks.

On Sunday it was her turn to cook the family dinner meal. On Saturday she went to the grocery and purchased the ingredients that she needed to cook the meal that she had decided on.

She planned on lobster tail and filet mignon, a small bowl of lobster bisque since she figured that there was always room for more lobster. For sides she would have corn on the cob, coleslaw, biscuits, and a green salad. For dessert she would prepare Creme Brule.

She knew which wine she would serve with the dinner and the desert wine that would complement the desert.

Sunday was spent morning getting things ready. She marinated the filet and prepared the lobster tail. She had the sides prepared ahead of the main dish. She then put the four lobster tails into the oven and the filets in her frying pan.

She asked Laura and Lillian to set the table and then got them to help put all the food out.

When they found out what the menu was, they asked if they had missed something and wondered what the special meal was for.

Lisa said that they would find out during dinner.