H-253: Little Isle Manor House

Apart from a single non-descript door off one side, the corridor toward the open space is featureless, though feels more ‘uncluttered’ than ‘bare’ due to the lighting and decor.

At its end, the corridor opens onto one corner of an atrium rising up through the house’s three storeys, the vertical space capped with an ornate skylight structure and supporting a huge light fixture of a multi-tubular design reminiscent of a giant wind chime.  Ahead of her on the centre of the wall opposite is a vestibule leading to what are probably the large front doors of the house, inner glass doors to the vestibule stand open while the large external doors follow the same glass-panelled design she saw on the doors to the garden, though the outer door panels here are translucent, giving a slight golden tint to the natural light outside.

Opposite the entry vestibule is a large shaped-stone stair leading up to the next floor, with twin flights switching back from the landing to lead to the top floor.  

The centre of the atrium is carpeted, a simple grey suffused with traceries of gold in a pattern something between lightning and spiderweb, the carpet contributes to muting the acoustics of what might otherwise be an echo-filled chamber.  Bordering the carpeted central area is a three-sided colonnade, with pillars of a simple, square design, about the same width as the corridor from which she has just emerged.  The colonnade is recessed beneath the upper floors, with various doors and openings beneath it leading to other rooms on this floor.  

Three people are standing talking on the far side of the atrium, and a grey-jacketed woman, a little younger than Lia and pretty in a severe way stands in the vestibule by the main doors.  There’s a sense of some movement and noise from above, but it’s difficult to get details from her current position just outside the corridor.