Hal and I nod and smile.
“What’s an orangery?” I ask Hal as she leaves.
“An orangery is a kind of greenhouse that became popular in the late nineteenth century, designed to nurture the propagation of citrus fruits and other delicate or exotic plants that require a warm and well-controlled environment. The orangery at Castle Beaumont is one of the largest and most elaborate in the UK and was considered one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture of the nineteenth century when it was added to the castle.”
“You’d make a great chatbot,” I tell him admiringly.
“Hah.” Hal’s smile is rueful. “I’m a know-it-all. Is it annoying?”
“Not to me,” I say, draining the last of the coffee. “I think you’re fascinating.”
That was probably a bit too much, right?
Still, Hal takes it all in his stride. Getting up, he comes round to my side of the table and pulls out my chair for me as I stand. Hal offers me his arm.
“Well, Ava Green,” he says. “Shall we see what Castle Beaumont has in store for us today?”
“Let’s,” I say, finding taking his arm surprisingly natural. “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be something wonderful.”
Chapter Six
Hal and I walk through the grand entrance hall of Castle Beaumont, which could fit, I think, about four average houses. It’s huge, with a set of double marble staircases curving up each side of the hall rising up to a stained-glass dome that allows the August sun to come flooding in jewel-coloured shafts. The walls are painted with Italian-style frescoes depicting endless gardens and cupid-strewn clouds. Any wall that isn’t decorated is hung with ancestorial portraits that must date back centuries, judging by the ruff collars and codpieces. Weird that the current Lord Beaumont looks a lot like his long-dead ancestors. They probably aren’t vampires, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
We find the orangery right at the back of the building, and I have to stop when I see it to take in its magnificence. To call it a greenhouse doesn’t really do it justice: It’s a huge glass and wrought-iron structure that looks almost like a cathedral with its vaulted roof and Gothic arched panes. Citrus trees, laden with oranges and limes, fill the room with a rich dark green and sharp clean scent, and metalwork spiral staircases lead up to a balcony lined with hothouse plants of all colours. In the middle of all thisthey have re-created my lab at the university, only about a billion times better. And that is a conservative estimate.
Standing in the middle of the orangery is an opaque glass box that is about twice the size of my lab on campus.
“Lord Beaumont does love his tech,” Lady Beaumont says as we approach the object, which could easily be an alien craft or a time travel device. Hal and I gaze at it with open-mouthed amazement. “And as you two require specialist equipment, he has rather gone to town. He was thrilled to have the excuse to set up not one but two state-of-the-art research laboratories. The orangery was the only place within the castle that we could find the square footage to re-create what you both needed.”
“You mean we’re sharing this?” I ask. Don’t get me wrong, Hal is delicious, and lovely, and a top first-kiss candidate, but I don’t want to share a lab withanyone.
“Oh no, no.” Lady Beaumont chuckles. “No, you have the orangery lab all to yourself, Ava. Hal, we’ve built your lab in the stables, in the training arena. It’s a bit of a walk, so I thought we’d give this one to Ava, ladies first and all that. But if I walk you through the basics together here, it will save a bit of time. Of course, a lot of the equipment is different, but the basics are the same.”
“Wow!” Hal beams. The look on his face tells me he feels exactly like I do, which is like a kid on Christmas morning.
Lady Beaumont claps her hands twice and instantly the opaque glass becomes clear, revealing nothing short of the lab of my dreams.
One wall is covered in the high-resolution displays I requested, and it seems like an experienced tech has been in to set them up, because they are already displaying FreeThought’s system metrics,neural network visualizations, and streaming code. To me those monitors are works of art, a glimpse into the fascinating mind that I brought into being before allowing it to evolve through learning.
I was worried about how my custom-designed and hand-built quantum-classical hybrid computers would travel, but they seem to be functioning perfectly. I give one a gentle pat and feel it whir under my palm. There’s the standing desk I requested, that I can adjust depending on how fidgety I am, an interactive whiteboard, and the not technically vital but so, so cool holographic display that lets me see FreeThought’s processing patterns in motion. When I put it on the list, I was pretty sure that would be the one thing that I wouldn’t get, but here it is and now I can pretend I am in the future.
“Your servers are in this anteroom,” Lady Beaumont tells me, opening another virtually invisible door. “The whole unit is soundproofed, and you can control the lighting and opacity of the glass to your taste, via this panel. And we built you a little pod if you want to meditate or rest.” She shows me a white, bean-shaped enclosure lined with soft green cushions. “And if you just want good old-fashioned nature, then the orangery leads out to the formal Italian gardens.”
“Wow,” I say. “This is so much more than I imagined. This is... expensive...”
Lady Beaumont laughs. “It is rather—the foundation does have a lot of money—but most of this is your equipment, don’t forget. We just added a little bit to the setting. And anything we’ve added is yours to keep afterwards, except the room itself. We’ll find a place to donate it to, or dismantle and reuse it somehow. Unless,of course, you win, in which case you might want to stay here to finish your work.”
“I hope I didn’t sound rude,” I say, turning to look at her. “This is honestly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. If I was the sort of person to hug people, I’d hug you. Again.”
“Ava, if I was the sort of person who enjoyed being hugged, I’d let you. Again.” Lady Beaumont smiles. It seems like the spontaneous embrace we’d shared just before breakfast was out of character for both of us, which just makes me like her more. “Now, I’ll leave you to get on with your work and see you at dinner. Come along, Hal, chop-chop.”
Hal gives me a nod goodbye as he follows LadyB out into the garden.
I’ve been looking forward to this moment since I left my campus lab. Clapping my hands, I turn the pod opaque and call out to my other best friend.
“FT, I’m home,” I call out happily.
“Ava, I’ve missed you,” his voice responds.
