~ Their new life begins ~<br/><br/>Nicci loved how relaxed it all felt, the light banter, with little glimpses of their deeper selves.  She sat back in her chair sipping her coffee her eyes drifting from face to face.  It really didn't seem possible she only arrived yesterday.  She felt... comfortable, not at home as such, but like she was at a very good friend's house, able to really relax and be herself.  She smiled, so much better than she'd thought it would be when she'd first arrived.<br/><br/>As Bo revealed his love of Southern American Food and for Texas biscuits Nicci smiled to herself, she'd make sure he did find some in the near future, she'd cooked what Americans called biscuits before, and buttermilk ones, she'd just check on-line if there were any variations from that area and she really looked forward to surprising him.<br/><br/>She made a mental note to make sure they ordered some good maple syrup too, as she also loved making an unusual maple syrup and thyme salad dressing as well as some melt in the mouth syrup and oatmeal cookies.  She was just thinking that she wished she'd brought her favourite recipe books with her when Cathy opened the door, and shepherded them all off to the kitchen to start their induction.<br/><br/>She started by showing them the layout of the kitchen, the manual in the drawer for all the appliances and small corridor from it which led to the laundry room, once the original kitchen for the castle.  With it's large butler sink, two enormous top loading washing machines, three tumble driers, drying lines and racks, and ironing facilities it was big enough for a hotel, but mind you Nicci thought, the Castle was big enough to be one, so that made sense.  One thing the laundry room had which she thought would be a real godsend was a butlers lift, which Cathy explained went straight up to the large linen room upstairs on the same corridor as the sharing bedrooms, so clean and dirty laundry could be sent up and down at the touch of a button.  It made her think of a children's book she'd read as a youngster where the children had gone up and down in one, hiding from the villain.  She suppressed a small giggle as she imagined Angus as the villain and the girls taking turns at squashing into the lift, she caught Mila's eye momentarily and grinned, she'd tell her later, Nicci thought.<br/><br/>Next door to the laundry room was the wet room, or boot room, all their outdoor gear, Cathy explained was to be stored here, right by the back door into the kitchen garden.  Nicci laughed as Cathy told them it was the girls job to guard this corridor with their lives and not let any muddy boots beyond this point.  Nicci noticed Cathy threw a slightly dark look in Marcus' direction at that point, and she wondered if, when he'd arrived he gone for a walk and trailed some mud in.  Nicci didn't say anything as he looked a little uncomfortable, and she could see no-one else had noticed so she held her tongue.  The boot room also had the large wood, coal and kindling bins for the fires and metal buckets for the ashes.  Cathy explained that the girl's would need to clean out any of the fireplaces used the night before every morning and that the guys would need to make sure the wood stacks and coal scuttles were topped up too.  She also said she'd show them all  how to clean out and then light a fire later.<br/><br/>Opposite the laundry and boot rooms was the huge walk-in larder she'd seen the night before, more like a little shop stacked high with food she listened carefully as Cathy explained that although they would be ordering food on-line, which would be delivered to her house on the mainland, and the men would bring it over by boat, bad weather and rough seas meant that it was often days, sometimes weeks that they could be stranded on the island and no supplies would get through.  This meant that they had to make sure, to be safe, that they had two months food supply at any one time.  She showed them the stock book on the hook by the door with the levels that all the basic foods clearly shown.<br/><br/>She was interested to have explained there were three bread-makers to make fresh bread every night, lots of onion strings and sacks of potatoes at the far end and realised that all the shelves at the end were made of marble, the vents at that end making everything almost as cold as it would be in a fridge.  There were two large chest freezers and one upright one, a large double door fridge in the larder as well as the fridge in the kitchen.  It would take some getting used to, she thought, making sure they were self-sufficient and she thumbed through the stock book thoughtfully, her eyes scanning the foods and how much they kept in readiness.<br/><br/>From there CAthy took them back through to the kitchen saying they would be shown round the kitchen garden and outside later, and showed them the small desk in one corner of the kitchen with the laptop which was to be their window on the world, their only way to order things.  She was pleasantly surprised they did have general internet access and no restrictions on what they could buy, each of them not only able to use their own personal money but also the estate bankers card also gave each of them a monthly allowance for clothes, toiletries and personal luxuries.  She warned them that the experiment's rules still applied though, and the team had access to all the internet usage and they were not to use it to do anything on the banned list they'd already been through.<br/><br/>Nicci smiled, she didn't think they'd have much time to go on chat sites, running this place was going to be a team effort, but she knew it would probably be tempting for those of them with family - they might want to chat  or email their loved ones. She saw there was a small chalk board on the wall nearby and imagined that that would be a great place for people to write down any little things they'd like to have put on the main orders.