A woman inherits a house from her estranged grandmother. Upon entering the house, she discovers a secret room. Describe the room. (note: I got nowhere near the point of describing the room…)

I barely knew I had a grandmother. Mum hated her with a passion. Mum hates a lot of people, including me.

Either way, I was surprised to get the lawyer’s letter, asking me to contact them for a meeting.

At the meeting, I discovered my grandmother had died, and left me everything. And the everything she left was quite substantial. Investments that took the edge off needing to work, jewellery I’d be terrified to wear, and a house just outside Oxford.

I also discovered I had an uncle and three cousins who now hated me almost as much as Mum did. Apparently the lawyers had yet to get hold of Mum. I got the impression they weren’t trying terribly hard. They seemed a sensible bunch.

So that’s how I found myself being conducted over the type of house you see in magazines, with a garden the size of a cricket ground, by an older lady wearing soft-soled shoes that somehow didn’t squeak on the polished floors, and a suspicious expression. She introduced herself as Muriel, my grandmother’s housekeeper.

I think I passed the first stage of some test as, at the end of a short tour that left me more confused than when I’d first walked in, she sat me down in the lovely farmhouse-style kitchen and grilled me over tea and biscuits. Where was I living? What had I been doing? What were my plans for the house? I’m pretty sure the last was the most important.

I was honest enough. This was completely out of the blue, I had no plans at all. Not even an idea in fact.

“What about the rest of your family?”

“You mean Mum? She’s not talking to me right now. Oh, you mean the uncle and cousins. I’ve no idea about them either.”

Muriel sipped her tea, a little too casual. “So they’ve not been in touch?”

“I’m not sure how they could be. The lawyers won’t give them my contact details without permission and I don’t see any reason to give it. And I’m not all that easy to find on social media. There haven’t been any new friend requests recently. The will was pretty cut and dried from what I was told.”

Naturally, that was the moment the doorbell rang.