It hadn’t occurred to her that anyone would be working there. That meant that she was responsible for more than just the house, the estate, and the monetary inheritance; there were people who made their livelihood there. There were people who may be out of a job if she sold the place. People who might have families that depended on them to work at Grayson Manor. The realization was a shock to her, and it heavily weighted the responsibility that she was already feeling.

“It’s quite a large home, Lady Claire, so it requires a staff. It’s actually much smaller staff than it once was. His lordship’s father and grandfather had a much bigger staff to run the estate, but now it’s the three of them, and, of course, the gardener and the stablehand.” He gave her a nod and held the car door open for her.

She pursed her lips a moment. “Stablehand? Are there stables?”

Mr. Dent nodded. “Yes, stables and horses.”

Claire got into the car, feeling immediately out of place sitting as a passenger on the left side of the seat. She felt instinctively that there should be a steering wheel and pedals in front of her, instead of on the right-hand side of the car, where Colin got in and sat down. He fastened his seatbelt and she did the same, and then he drove them away from the station.

“You didn’t say anything about horses and stables,” she said with a sidelong look at him, doing her best not to sound as if she was chastising him.

He blinked. “Oh, didn’t I? Well, yes. Horses and stables. You’ll have some time there this week to discover it all. It’s quite a vast place, really. I should probably also mention that his lordship also has three automobiles in the garage as well. The garage wasn’t part of the original manor. That was just added on in the 1930s.”

She smiled to hear him speak as if the 1930s were only as recent as a few years ago, or even a decade at most. One of the things that she had noticed on the trains going into and out of London was the strange blend of very old world and new modern world that were somehow mixed together. The old buildings that she saw were centuries older than anything that existed in the states, and she had been amazed at their beauty and sturdiness.

The car rolled along the narrow lane and Claire found herself looking more often out of the window in the door than the front windshield because the oddity of being a passenger on the left side of the car was so bizarre to her, and in addition to her exhaustion, it made her a little dizzy.

“It’s really beautiful here. I’ve never seen a countryside like this, except in photographs,” she said quietly.

The serenity that she had felt looking at the blue sky and puffy clouds outside of the airplane window seemed to continue with her as she watched low lying green hills rise and slope downward again, dotted with sheep here and there.

“It is lovely,” Colin agreed. “It’s nice to come here and get out of the city once in a while. There’s breathing room out here and no pollution. It’s quite nice indeed.” He gave her a jaunty smile and a nod as he drove on.

She was so tired and so taken in by the charm of the countryside that she was surprised when they reached the manor much sooner than she expected, or at least, it felt that way to her. Colin pointed it out to her as they rounded a hill and he pulled the car through a tall wide gate.

“There… there’s the manor just around this bend. You’ll see it all in a moment.” He sounded proud, as if he was showing off a crown jewel to her, and when they came around the bend and the manor and the grounds were in full view, she gasped, and she understood why he had sounded that way.

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