Chapter 232 Trouble On The Horizon?

• The Delano palatial estate was large, and that was an understatement. Almost a hundred rooms, Beatrice boasted to anyone who cared to listen, which was a bit of an exaggeration, of course!
• Set at the end of a winding drive lined with ancient oaks, the mansion stood in grand, gentle defiance of time—vast, sprawling, and full of life. Its architecture was an elegant patchwork of eras: a wide front with high-arched windows and ivy-clad stone, wings that had been added over generations, and a warm, terracotta-tiled roof stretching out in all directions like the skirts of a noblewoman settling into her chair.
• The grounds unfolded endlessly around it—rolling lawns broken by old fountains, sun-drenched courtyards, flowerbeds in glorious disarray, and wide terraces where vines clambered over wrought-iron railings. A hedge maze curled like a secret to one side, and orchards stretched into the distance on the other, the trees heavy with fruit in the summer haze. Stone paths wandered without hurry between garden nooks, herb plots, and shaded benches that seemed to remember conversations whispered long ago. In the centre of the lawns near the kitchens was a large funfort, well used and loved by all the children.