Luisa pushed about, trying to get comfortable amongst what seemed like a thousand pillows and duvets in the Volkswagen Golf. It smelled like dogs even though they didn't have any. Every time she had reproached her mum about the VW her mum would cry, "But darling, what are you talking about? It's a fabulous car! It's never let me down. I would be very interested to see exactly how good you look, young lady, after traveling over one hundred and fifty thousand miles with a family of three on your back!"

Luisa smirked at the thought. Her mum returned from their house after double-checking everything was locked up. Once in the driver's seat she turned back to face them. "Right, kids, are we ready to go? Luisa, make sure your brother's in his seat properly."

Luisa pushed together the buckles, securing Max in his booster seat, making him look like a miniature race-car driver. Next she peeled off the lid to his hummus, ketchup and carrot mix; a Maximus favourite.

The car was hot and stuffy as they drove along the M4 motorway to Wales. Luisa had only met her grandmother twice. She remembered her like a figure in an old painting: distant, dressy, and dusty. Her grandmother's house stood next to a large ruined abbey, deep in the Welsh countryside. Last time she had been there she had been really young, maybe seven? She wrestled with her memory between blinks, each heavier than the last... then woke with a sore neck as the car wheels hit gravel and they began to incline.

"Wow!" Max strained forward to get a better view. "Look, Luisa! A castle!"

Out the window she could see the ruins of the Wynn abbey looming at the top of the hill. The abbey had soaring white buttresses, grandiose arches, and what would have been incredible stained-glass windows, with now just the empty geometric stonework hinting at their patterns. On the tops of the remaining walls perched stone gargoyles of different animals, frozen in their roar, bark or hissing at those below. The roof and floors had long since fallen in, but in their place had grown a large tree, so tall that it rose above the walls, its branches fanned protectively out over the circular centre chapel.

"That's not a castle, darling." Luisa's mum explained. "That's the abbey."

Far to the left of the abbey, through a garden lay a separate house. Though small by comparison to the abbey, it was a well-built two-storey grey stone house, with a slate roof inset with squat windows and two grand bay windows on each side of the front door.

Luisa spotted a quick movement behind one of the squat windows in the roof. As she strained to see what it was, her mum sang out, "Alright guys, we are here!"

Luisa tugged at her hefty bag and stood on the road. Shielded by the door, she watched her grandmother glide towards them in a deep, red velvet dress that reached the ground. Her thick grey hair, pulled into a tight bun, highlighted her high eyebrows, sharp nose and firm mouth. Luisa took a few tentative steps out from behind the car. Her grandmother froze as she caught sight of Luisa, blinking like she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. An instant later the surprise was gone, a tight controlled smile replacing it. "Hello, my dear, how are you?" Each word came out clear and precise, with no hint of a Welsh accent.

"I'm okay..." said Luisa, taking half a step back. Apart from you looking at me like I'm a bloody ghost.

Luisa's mum approached and gave her grandmother a kiss on the cheek. "Mother, its wonderful to see you!"

Grandmother didn't so much hug her daughter as put her hands on her waist to regain a more proper distance. "It's good to see you too my dear. Now." The "now" shifted the sentence, like a gear change, from niceties to business. "Please cease that manual work. Your things will be fine here for the moment; you are not in London now. Your brother will be here presently and lugging heavy objects is his domain." Then as an afterthought she added, "Now more than ever."

The sternness of her instructions were softened by a gallop of little determined feet. Max had managed to slide under the buckles of his booster seat and spill out of the car; his action figure in his hand and tomato ketchup on his face. With a wide stance he pointed up at the tall lady, threw his head back and shouted, "You're my granny!"

The only change in their grandmother's expression was an eyebrow that scaled half an inch upward. Her mouth remained stern. "Maximus, kindly call me Grandmother and kindly clean your face. Then you may shake my hand."

She leant forward and extended a hand adorned with several large rings.

Luisa knew what was going to happen next. Max was the high-five king and, despite his diminutive size, had quite a powerful whack. She watched in horror as her brother put his head down and bolted at Grandmother, his little face set in concentration as he raised his small arm high and threw all his weight behind his high-five. Grandmother's hand recoiled under the weight of the blow and a small piece of gold flew through the air.

"Goodness me!" Grandmother said, clasping her smacked hand. Luisa ran to the nettle bush where she'd seen the ring land. I suppose now isn't the time to be worried about getting stung.

She felt the pin-prick pain as she brushed past the nettle's biting leaves but she saw the ring, a small piece of gold on the ground, and pulled it out from under the bush.

As she walked back Luisa examined the ring in her throbbing fingers. It was beautiful: small and delicate, with carefully carved waves of gold surrounding a shining black stone in the centre.

She looked up to see her grandmother towering over her, extended her thin hand. Luisa placed the ring in her palm. "Sorry about that. He likes to high-five." Luisa's fingers still buzzed a little from the sting of the nettles.

"Thank you," Grandmother replied. "Now." She looked down at Max, who had attached himself to her leg. "Maximus, you will let go of my ankle, and in the coming weeks you will be taught to shake people's hands instead of hitting them."

"But I was doing a high-five," Max said, looking crestfallen.

"Well your 'high-five' would have cost us a family heirloom if your sister hadn't acted so quickly. Luisa, take your brother off and have a look about the abbey and grounds. Don't climb on anything. Try to avoid the excessive touching of anything, it is very old. Your mother and I are going to have a chat, and your presence is not appropriate."

Wow, she's a bit sharp. Am I going to have to deal with this for the next six weeks?

Grandmother managed to disengage Max from her leg with a gentle shake and gave him a small push towards Luisa, who took his hand. Then Grandmother led Mum to the huge door to the house. Just before they entered, Luisa's mother looked back over her shoulder and mouthed, "Be good."

Luisa and Max followed the path into the grounds of the ancient abbey. They passed underneath the towering white walls and crumbling buttresses that vaulted overhead. Any remnants of a floor had been replaced with a healthy grass lawn and a sprawling ivy had consumed some of the ruin. Luisa let her hand run along the old stones as her imagination stripped away the ivy, filled the empty windows with stained glass and restored life to the ruin.

It must have been just beautiful. I guess it still is in its own way.

They eventually reached a wide, circular inner sanctum. It was monumental, half the size of a football pitch with burnished walls looming skyward, a perfectly circular hall in the centre of the ruin. The sanctum commanded reverence even in a ruined state. It was here where the tree grew and, over the centuries, its own branches matched the height of the abbey's walls. Even Max became quiet, settling himself against the trunk of the tree in a peaceful state.

Luisa closed her eyes. She could hear no planes heading to Heathrow, nor the drone of a motorway, no shouts, rattling buses nor the thump-thump of bass from her DJ-ing neighbours. It was completely serene. Well, if Grandmother gets on my nerves I can always come here. Slipping off her shoes, she scrunched her toes in the grass and inhaled the fresh air. Luisa felt irresistibly drawn to the centre of the circular space, as if a supernatural force was trying to pull her forward. She could almost feel the ghostly hands gliding down her bare arms, slipping into her own and guiding her onward. Luisa let them take her, padding across the grass before lying down in the very centre. She closed her eyes and took a breath, savouring the moment before opening her eyes and letting her gaze climb up. Amazing. Through the dense canopy of leaves, shifting shafts of afternoon light highlighted the dust and pollen in the air and reflected off the stone beams of the inner sanctum. A series of high vaulted windows stood between thirteen thick pillars. Up in one window perched a white cat. Luisa smiled up at him and gave him a wave. In typical cat fashion, he turned about and disappeared.

She skimmed her hands over the lush grass around her and felt the strangest sensation. The ground pulsated beneath her, as though she was lying on a giant heart. She immediately sat up. Did I just imagine that? She tentatively lowered her hands back down into the grass, feeling each individual blade as they ran beneath her palms and tickled her fingers. As her hands met soil, she could feel something else; a distinctive warmth emanating from the ground.

How strange... She looked up. There was a gap in the branches above her, more than enough for the sun to warm the earth below. That could explain the heat, but not the pulsation. Max didn't seem to feel anything. He was busy playing with his action figurine whispering lines of script. Luisa dug a bit of the earth away and pushed her fingers down a bit further, just to be sure—and touched a solid surface. Hooking her fingers into the ground, she pulled at the soil. A large clump came away with surprising ease, revealing a flat, black, stone.

She touched it and gasped.

It was undeniable. The stone was emitting heat.