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certain—she would have more than one!
    It had been lonely having no brother or sister to share her games, or, more important, to whom she could confide her dreams of the wondrous characters who in her imagination peopled the woods and the mountains.
    “I long to see the Castle,” she said aloud to Ellen. “It is I am sure a very fitting home for His Lordship.”
    She said no more but allowed Ellen to dress her hair in what was a more elaborate style than usual.
    A travelling gown of dark blue cashmere trimmed with frills of taffeta and small velvet bows seemed to Natalia after her plain cotton dresses to be the zenith of elegance.
    She had no idea until she wore expensive gowns what a tiny waist she had, that her skin was so white or her hair the colour of Spring sunshine.
    “How do I look, Ellen?” she asked staring at her reflection in the small mirror.
    “Very lovely, Miss,” Ellen replied in almost awestruck tones. “You will make a beautiful bride.”
    That is what Natalia wanted to hear, that she would look beautiful, really beautiful for the man whom she dreamed about, and who had become already an indivisible part of her life.
    The Knight who walked beside her through the woods. The Knight with whom she had raced over the fields when she rode Crusader, allowing him in her imagination to beat her because, as a Knight, he must excel at everything, even at the games they played together.
    Then finally as they drove round the Malvern Hills they had their first view of the Castle.
    Natalia drew in her breath.
    She did not believe it possible for any place to be so magnificent! Or indeed so dream-like.
    The last leaves of October were still russet and golden on the trees which surrounded it. The great towers emerged above them, grey and stalwart, and the afternoon sunlight seemed to touch the stone walls with a shimmer of fairy gold.
    “Look, Papa. The Castle!”
    Natalia could hardly breathe the words, and the Reverend Adolphus, who had been sleeping in a corner of the carriage, raised himself to look out of the window.
    “Yes, indeed, the Castle!” he exclaimed. “It is a very fine building, Natalia.”
    “It is wonderful! Glorious! I had imagined it, but it is far, far more magnificent than I thought any place could be!”
    There was a river running through the valley below and the Castle, visible for miles away, had been built to stand sentinel over the lush and undulating countryside which surrounded it.
    Far away in the distance there were the Welsh Mountains, their barren peaks high in Heaven, purple and mysterious as the mountains at Ullswater.
    Now that the moment when she would meet Lord Colwall was near, Natalia for the first time felt nervous.
    Supposing, after all, he did not like her? Supposing he had changed his mind in the three years since he decided that she should be his wife, and had found someone else he loved more?
    Then she told herself she was being ridiculous.
    After all, if he had found someone else, he would not have sent for her. The summons had come immediately after her eighteenth birthday, so perhaps, like her, he had been counting the days until he considered her old enough to be his Bride.
    “Do I look ... all right, Papa?”
    The words were a little frightened and the large grey-green eyes in the small face which was lifted towards the Reverend Adolphus were troubled.
    “You look very beautiful,” her father replied. “Not as beautiful as your mother was when I first saw her! No-one could be as beautiful as that! But lovely in your own way.”
    “Thank you, Papa,” Natalia gave him a little smile, and then bending forward she laid her cheek for a moment against his arm.
    “I shall miss you, Papa, and I shall miss more than I can tell you, our talks, our discussions and the clever way you explain everything to me.”
    “Your husband will talk to you now,” the Reverend Adolphus said. “You are not only beautiful, my dearest, but you are very intelligent. It is unusual