Some alterations made it fit Benedicta to perfection and when she rode either with the Duke or with a groom, she felt that she too was part of the magnificence of the house and the beauty of the gardens.
Every day these grew more lovely as the warm weather brought the trees and shrubs into bloom.
Pink and white blossoms on the peach and almond trees, hanging golden chains on the laburnums, purple lilac bushes and the first buds of the crimson rhododendrons, made Benedicta feel as if she was living in a fairyland.
When the Duke returned from London, he was told that she was in the garden and, as she ran towards him, against a background of colour, he thought her hair seemed part of the sunshine.
“You are back! You are back!” she exclaimed as a child might have done. “I am so glad!”
“Yo
