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was wondering if you’d like to go for a stroll with me in the
grounds before dinner? The lake always looks lovely at this time of day.’
    Brianna Jade was already rising to her feet, which she had sensibly clad in two-inch Lanvin slingbacks with a square heel. She and Tamra had learnt early that British aristocrats thought it was
really ‘common’ for women to wear high heels when any kind of walking on lawns was involved: that was for what they called ‘plebs’, which seemed to mean anyone but them.
Brianna Jade remembered polo matches where Minty and her crew had audibly mocked young women digging divots in the grass with the heels of their Jimmy Choos. Instead, the posh girls (although Tamra
and Brianna Jade avoided saying that word, as posh people loathed it) showed off their skinny bare legs in Le Chameau or Hunter wellies and miniskirts that barely covered their tiny bottoms.
    As Edmund held out his hand to her, Brianna Jade noticed his eyes flickering down for a second to assess her footwear, and his almost imperceptible nod of approval that she wasn’t wearing
stilettos.
    Hey, I may not be Ivy League material, but I’m a quick learner,
she thought proudly.
I’ll do fine as a Countess. He’ll never have to be embarrassed by me.
    ‘Shall we?’ he said, the little phrase that posh men used to mean ‘Let’s go’, and he tucked her arm through his so that she was resting on him just a tad. It was
very gentlemanly; she loved it. They proceeded out through the French windows, onto the terrace, and down the stone steps to the gravel path that looped scenically around the gardens. They had been
designed by someone with the weird name of Capability Brown, who Tamra assured Brianna Jade was like the biggest deal ever in gardening, and they needed a whole lot of maintenance. Edmund had
apologized on their first visit because what he called the ‘vistas’ weren’t what they should be; trees and bushes needed to be pruned away so that you could really see the
views.
    Well, that’s what he’s got me for, isn’t it?
she thought now, tripping along happily next to Edmund; after years of stepping elegantly up and down pageant stairs in
killer heels, a stroll along a gravel path in two-inch slingbacks was nothing. Gardeners cost money, and that’s what she was bringing to the table. Soon this place would have vistas up the
wazoo. Stanclere would be vista heaven. They could invite magazines just to take photos of the vistas . . .
    She giggled a little at her own silliness, and Edmund, looking down at her pretty face for a moment, smiled at how charming she was. They rounded some overgrown shrubbery and the lake appeared,
a soft green grassy slope dropping away to the oval expanse of water below, which shimmered gently in the light of the afternoon sun even with the green algae at its shoreline.
    ‘It’s supposed to be much more dramatic a sight,’ Edmund said apologetically. ‘The rhododendrons should really frame the first approach to the lake, and the stand of
silver birches has been awfully neglected . . .’
    ‘It’s a
great
vista,’ Brianna Jade reassured him, and he burst out laughing.
    ‘You have truly lovely manners,’ he said, patting her hand.
    ‘Let’s walk over the bridge,’ she said eagerly, looking at the low pale stone bridge that arched so elegantly over the water. Secretly she was thinking how very romantic it
would be to be proposed to there, the sun behind her making her hair glow rosy with its golden light, Edmund on one knee . . .
    ‘Ah, I’m so sorry,’ Edmund said, grimacing, ‘but the groundskeeper told me this morning that he’s worried about the foundations. It needs shoring up, apparently. He
was supposed to put a plank across each side to stop people walking over it, just in case, but he clearly hasn’t got round to it yet. I’ll have to have a word with him tomorrow.
Can’t blame him too much though, I suppose – there’s just so much to do around