The drive to Dean Maynard’s country home in Cottage Grove was a pleasant one.
They passed a number of stately houses, refurbished from modest farmhouse structures. Nearly all of them were closed up until the summer season.
At last they pulled up to the Maynard house. The surrounding property had retained some of its dairy farm origins, with a silo, barn, and split-rail fencing, but the house itself had been rebuilt in a grander style, with a deep, white columned porch and asymmetrically-proportioned high-peaked gables of Windsor blue.
Festive Chinese lanterns were strung along the portico, and every window glowed. Band music drifted faintly through the open door as they alighted from the carriage. Concordia and Charlotte exchanged glances as they straightened their trains and settled th
