Ritornello

Ritornello is the estate of Mrs. Primrose Patterson, in the village of Woodland Centre. Its green gates open into a great circular driveway with a white marble statue of the goddess Minerva emerging from Jupiter's forehead in the center. It is surrounded by massive oak trees.

## Rooms

Ritornello is an expansive estate with many rooms, such as a library with a fireplace in it, a gallery with Aunt Primrose's personal art collection, a dining room with a long, rectangular dark walnut table, as well as more than one sitting room and small study.

### Primrose's Room

Aunt Primrose’s boudoir is decorated in a manner befitting a woman who loves the outdoors. The room is papered in a green twining ivy motif, and gilt-edged paintings of jockeys and horses adorn the walls. Her great four-poster bed—each post topped with a horse head finial—dominates the room. There is also a large wardrobe, a full-length standing mirror, a dressing table with many cosmetics and baubles, and a closed rolltop writing desk.

### Mopsie's Room

Mopsie was provided a room of her own for her several-month-long stay at Ritornello. The maids, it seemed, had given up all hope of tidying the place: dirty clothes, used dishes, crumpled papers, and dainty handkerchiefs, moist from weeping, littered the floor up to nearly ankle depth in places. The room once had a carousel horses theme, but the decorative lamps and statuary were removed from the shelves and night table and dumped in a heap in a corner.

### Guest Rooms

#### Oak Room

The Oak Room is one of the more luxurious guest suites in Ritornello. It is located on the second floor and has an east-facing patio. During the eventful weekend consisting of Aunt Primrose’s birthday, foxhunt and Harvest Festival, Rory stayed in the Oak Room.

#### Spruce Room

The Spruce Room is a guest suite decorated in rich, dark wood, with animal heads on plaques on nearly every inch of wall. This room contains the hunting trophies of Mr. Patterson, Aunt Primrose’s late husband. Notably, a very large stuffed moose with a highly annoyed expression occupies one corner. Col. Firesnuff stayed in the Spruce Room.

#### Myrtle Room

The Myrtle Room is one of the finer bedrooms of the estate, and decorated in lavender with silver accents. A vase filled with violet asters sits on a piano near the windows; a zither on a satin cushion sits nearby. This room was the room in which Frankincense stayed during their weekend in Ritornello.

#### Ash Room

The Ash Room is a guest room notable for its Napoleonic theme. Banners with golden eagle finials decorate the walls, and a marble bust of Napoleon adorns the broad stone fireplace mantel. Four golden cherubim wearing laurel wreaths and short tunics serve as the posts of the canopy bed. Their brilliant gold is reflected an infinite number of times by the wall-sized gilt-edged mirrors hanging on the left and the right walls as you enter. During *Tally Ho*, Haze was the occupant of this room.

#### Pine Room

The Pine Room is the smallest guest room at the estate. Really, it used to be a storage closet, but it has since been renovated and transformed into a cozy nook of a guest room, for guests traveling alone who don’t mind not having much space. According to Regina, Inspector Ambrose was given this room because he was a late arrival.

### Staff Rooms

Regina Wilhelmina, Aunt Primrose’s housekeeper, has a cramped and incredibly spartan room downstairs across a long, spare corridor. The newest members of the estate’s help are quartered in the subbasement. Valentine shared a small with another new hire. It was only slightly larger than a sizable broom closet, just big enough for two narrow beds with thin mattresses, a few shelves, and a shared nightstand. Servants also have their own separate dining room, adjacent to the kitchens.