] When Catherine's ears perked up at the mention of Blaize Castle, I wanted to shout at my book, "Don't do it, Catherine! Stay home! Stay home!" ;-) But...*sigh*...she wouldn't have listened anyway. ;-)

LOL! Like screaming at the TV "Don't look in the basement, Catherine!!"

] Even the thing that eventually persuades Catherine into going--the idea of going to Blaize Castle--seems to have an air of the lie about it. It's as if he's just listing things that are likely to tempt her into going without seriously considering any of them, or even imagining that they're feasible. So when she appears intrigued by the idea of the castle as, being Catherine, she must, ;-) he plucks down more lies to convince her that it will be every bit as delightful as she imagines.

And the great joke here is that Blaise Castle is not really a castle at all. It is a folly built to resemble a castle and was built in 1766, a mere 30 years earlier. So there are no nooks and crannies, moldering staircases or crumbling parapets to be found. But here is John Thorpe proclaiming it to be the oldest castle in the kingdom!

Here's a picture of the folly. You can see how small it is, and it looks fairly new even now. Imagine how pristine, and not at all crumbling, it would have appeared 200 years ago. Catherine would have been sorely disappointed!