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Hall.”
    Elizabeth bit her lip.
    “I am glad, but I shall miss you quite dreadfully.”
    “I do wish you could come with me,” Chiara said, thinking how much fun it would be if the two of them were both able to attend the dinner parties her Mama mentioned.
    “I really cannot.” Elizabeth shook her head. “Not when I have so much to do before the wedding, but Chiara, – will you be my bridesmaid? Promise?”
    “Of course!” Chiara said and gave her friend a hug.
    *
    The next day, as Chiara climbed into the chaise to begin her journey to Norfolk, Elizabeth pressed a brown paper parcel into her hands.
    “Thank you for everything,” she said. “Papa told me to choose a special present for you and this is it. Don’t open it until you get home, will you?”
    And then the chaise was soon rattling away over the cobblestones and Chiara turned back to wave at her friend, who stood on the steps as she had done on that first day, only now there were no black clouds in the sky and the spring sun was shining down on her glowing red hair.
    This time, as she travelled up the drive to her home, Chiara did not look up at Rensham Hall. She could not bear to remember the last time she had arrived here.
    When her mother came running down the stairs of Rensham Hall to greet her, Chiara’s heart stopped beating for a moment. What if her Mama should trip on the stairs and fall at Chiara’s feet, just like her father had done.
    But Lady Fairfax did not stumble, she descended the staircase swiftly and gracefully, looking tall and elegant in a black mourning gown.
    She was rather thinner than Chiara remembered and her face was very pale, but she seemed to have recovered much of her spirit.
    “Oh, my darling! It’s so good to see you,” she said and flung her arms around Chiara. “Now you are here we can start to live again!”
    “You look beautiful, Mama,” Chiara sighed, gazing into Lady Fairfax’s brown eyes and seeing that they were glowing with vitality once again.
    “So do you, my Chiara. Why, the Fenland air must agree with you, you have such lovely roses in your cheeks. And you seem, I don’t know, quite grown up!”
    Chiara felt suddenly shy.
    She had been only been away for a month, but she felt as if she had not seen her Mama for a very long time.
    And she did feel grown up, after spending so much time with Elizabeth and planning for the wedding. Her days of being a carefree schoolgirl were now long past.
    “But darling, just look at all these.”
    Lady Fairfax pointed to the silver tray that lay on the hall table, which was piled high with cards.
    “Half of these people I don’t even know,” Lady Fairfax continued, picking up a handful of the cards. “Mr. Hunter? Who is he? I don’t remember your Papa having an acquaintance of that name and here is a Lord Darley – I have certainly never met this person.”
    “It’s very kind of everybody to call and offer their condolences, Mama.”
    “Indeed it is and we must repay that kindness. Now you are home, we must give dinner parties. First we must invite close friends and neighbours. Then we should extend our hospitality to some of these others we don’t know. It might be fun to make some new acquaintances.”
    She turned to Chiara with a bright smile.
    “I am quite looking forward to a little excitement,” she said. “But now, my darling, you must go up to your room and settle yourself in.”
    But Lady Fairfax’s social schedule did not work out quite as she had planned, as the first visitors to Rensham Hall were neither neighbours nor friends.
    After breakfast the morning after her return home, Chiara took herself to the stables with a handful of sugar lumps for her old white pony, Erebus.
    But before she could pass under the arch of the clock tower, which led into the stable yard, she heard the clatter of hooves behind her and turned, expecting to see one of the grooms bringing a pair of horses back from their morning exercise.
    But the two handsome