The Secret of the Monks

My husband and I are academics and not particularly inclined to believe in the supernatural.

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My husband and I are academics and not particularly inclined to believe in the supernatural. But even we cannot quite deny the magical effect of our vineyards, which were once owned by a cloister of Cistercian monks. My husband in particular has a story to tell! Roughly halfway up our old steep vineyards is a cave dwelling. A set of rooms have been carved out of the hillside there. There's a fireplace in the entry area, although for a long time it was unusable, and a kitchen next to it. By tapping on the walls, the previous owners had discovered a secret, walled-up room. They decided to unblock it, but ultimately found nothing extraordinary back there.

One day we decided to renovate the fireplace near the entrance. Once the repairs were complete, my husband lit a fire and enjoyed a bottle of wine there in the cave dwelling. The fireplace didn't want to work quite right. It spat out smoke and flickered heavily. Outside it slowly got dark. Suddenly my husband heard utensils and voices, as if from the inn down in the village below, coming from the secret room behind the kitchen. In terror he grabbed his half-drunk bottle and fled down to the estate house. It was probably the smoke and wine that set his fantasy going. Or might, just might, he have discovered one of the Cistercian's well-kept secrets... the monks' hidden passage?

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