Once in the blazing sunshine, they walked past a vast wooden carriage house and stable painted a dark green, almost black, then by the main house, covered in light yellow stucco with tall white-framed windows and doors set on a long stone terrace.
“I’ll bring you into the big house later,” Mary said, continuing across a thick lawn shaded by large trees, some in full leaf, others just budding.
Crossing the open expanse, Meg looked back to see another garden. A thin man knelt at a long flowerbed. Beyond him, stood a glass house.
As Mary continued to chatter, Meg wondered how the woman could keep up such blather. They strolled to an orchard and climbed over a stone stile to enter a very rough and hilly stretch, filled with gorse and grazing cows.
“Mind how you go,” Mary called over her sh
