He smiled at me and I felt happy.

I was fascinated by the house when I saw it. It was predominantly Tudor-black beams with whitewashed panels in between, the upper part projecting beyond the ground floor.

Drake had pulled up. He sat for a few seconds watching the effect the house had on me.

I turned to him smiling. "It's wonderful," I said. "I could really feel I was back three hundred years."

"That's the effect it has. Isabel complains of the inconvenience of the kitchens and so on. But I wouldn't change one little bit of it. I'm so glad you like it."

He leaped down and helped us all out.

The big oak door opened and a woman came out. She was fresh complexioned and sufficiently like Drake to tell me that this was his sister Isabel. She smiled warmly.

"Welcome," she said. "I'm so glad to meet you at last. Do come in."

We went into the hall, which had a high vaulted roof. There was a fire blazing in the enormous fireplace.

"Are you cold and hungry?" she asked. "Oh, here's my husband. Harry, come and meet our guests."

Harry Denton appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He had a charming, easy manner and I liked him on the spot just as I had Drake's sister.

I felt this was going to be a very happy Christmas.

Isabel insisted on our drinking a glass of hot punch to warm us up. "Then you shall go to your rooms."

"Punch?" cried Katie. "How can you drink punch?"

"You'll see," Isabel told her.

I said that Katie might have a little . . . watered down.

Katie was very intrigued. She thought she was in a very exciting household where people were named Drake-although she had accepted that one by now-but not to drink punch.

"What a funny house," she said.

"Darling, it's a wonderful house," I admonished.

"Yes . . . but funny."

Isabel showed us our rooms. We went up a staircase of solid oak. Drake could not resist telling us that the staircase had been put in for a king's visit, for King Henry VIII had actually stayed at the house for two nights. That was when the house had been transformed and changed from a dilapidated Saxon dwelling into a Tudor house. On one side of the newel was engraved the Tudor rose and on the other the fleur-de-lys.

We came to a landing. Here were our bedrooms-a small one each for Grand'mere and Cassie, and for Katie and me a much larger room with a high ceiling and a floor which sloped, and windows with leaded panes looking out onto a garden.

"Are we going to sleep here?" whispered Katie.

I told her we were and she was awestruck.

Hot water was brought into the bedrooms as soon as we arrived.

"Could you be down in half an hour?" asked Isabel. "That will give you time to wash and unpack perhaps." She smiled at me. "I'm so glad to meet you at last. Drake has talked so much about you."

"Are you here often?" I asked.

"Yes. Since Drake was elected. He needs a hostess here. Harry and I like it. This house is part of my childhood. It has been in the Aldringham family since soon after it was Tudorized ... so you see how we feel about it."

"I can well understand."

''I'll be pleased to show you over it, but I daresay Drake will want to do that. He's so proud of the old place. It has quite a history. Charles the First stayed in one of the bedrooms when he was being chased by Cromwell's men. Of course he stayed in lots of houses . . . but we preserve his room. We never use it. It's just as it was when he slept in it."

"It must be wonderful to belong to such a family."

"Well, we all belong to our families, don't we? There is a family tree in the hall. I must show it to you. It goes right back to the sixteenth century. Collect the others when you're ready and come down to the hall."

Katie had been listening intently.

"What's Cromwell's men?" she asked.

I said: "I'll explain later. It's a long story and there isn't time now."

''Will they come chasing us ... like they did that First man?''

I laughed. "Nobody's going to come chasing us. It all happened a long time ago."

When we went down to the hall Isabel was waiting for us. She said dinner would be served in about ten minutes.

I learned that Harry had a fairly large estate some thirty miles from Swaddingham. He had a good manager so it was easy for him to get away.

"It means," said Isabel, "that we can almost always come here when Drake needs us. There is a certain amount of entertaining to do now that he is an M.P. He has to keep the constituents happy. There are all sorts of meetings here. Of course, he is in London a good deal, but I always tell him that I'm available when he needs me. I've always been something of a mother to Drake. He was only eight when our mother died. I was thirteen. I felt years older than he was. And that's how it has always been."

"I'm sure he's very grateful to you."

"Oh . . .he's my favourite man . . . after Harry, of course. I hope he will marry as happily as I have. Drake is a very special person."

I had a feeling that she was assessing me and that she was coming to the conclusion that I was to be that one; and as she looked pleased I guessed that she approved of me. She was certainly very charming to me.

Katie was allowed to join us for dinner for I did not feel she should be left alone in a strange room. She was delighted to be sitting at the table with the grown-ups; and as she was placed between Drake and me she felt quite at home.

That was a merry meal, sitting in that ancient room with its exquisite linenfold panelling and the leaded windows. Candles guttered in the brackets and in the large candelabrum in the centre of the table.

We talked about the house, its gardens, its grounds and stables. Katie listened avidly. Drake said that the next day he would find a pony for Katie and would give her a lesson in the paddock. She was wildly excited at the prospect and asked a great many questions. We were all very amused by these; but eventually she grew sleepy and was desperately trying to keep awake so as not to miss a moment of this exciting adventure; but it was hard work.

I said I would take her up to bed and stay with her so that I should be there if she awoke.

She murmured something about her pony as I kissed her good night and she was soon fast asleep.

I sat for some time at the window looking out. There was faint moonlight which showed me the outline of the distant trees. I was looking down on a lawn surrounded by flower beds which no doubt would make a glorious show in summer.

I was falling in love with the house and I had a notion that this was what Drake intended me to do. I was visualizing myself as mistress of it, helping Drake with his political work, making his career my main interest, just as I had made the salon mine; but Drake's career would have to be my first concern if I married him. I was only really part of Lenore's. Grand'mere was the creator of those superb creations and it was the Countess's shrewdness and connections which were of such vital importance. I could easily step aside or take a minor role . . . Grand'mere would understand. It was what she wanted; and I believed the Countess wanted the same.

I was physically tired but mentally alert. I went to bed and lay there wakeful for some time. A great excitement gripped me. I was certain that Drake had brought me here to ask me to marry him. He was showing a certain caution; and I guessed this was because he would be asking me to give up my business-at least to a large extent-and he was not sure how I should feel about that. I felt there was a certain restraint in him and I could only think that was the reason.

After breakfast next morning, Isabel took us round the house. It was larger than I had thought. We began with the kitchen with its enormous brick oven and roasting spits.

"Made for the days when people had gargantuan appetites," said Isabel. "Mind you I have dared to introduce a little modernity so that we can cook without too much inconvenience."

We explored the outhouses which included a buttery and a laundry.

Then we came to the main hall with its stone walls and vaulted ceiling.

"We use this when there are many guests," Isabel explained. "Sometimes we have to give dinner parties for the dignitaries of the neighbourhood. For smaller occasions we use the dining room. On Christmas Day there will be several guests so we shall eat Christmas dinner here. These stairs lead up to the dining room and the drawing room; and then on the next floor are the bedrooms. There are twenty of them, of varying sizes; and above that is the long gallery which goes across the whole length of the house; above are the attics and servants' quarters."

Drake had joined us. "You're stealing a march on me, Isabel," he said. And to us: "You must see the gallery. It's the oldest part of the house ... the remains of the Saxon section. It was not changed when the lower part was renovated."

I stood there in that gallery. There was an eeriness about it. Even though it was bright daylight there seemed to be shadows.

"The windows are so small," said Drake. "We could have them changed but that would be frowned upon. Of course we can't change the character of the place which we should do if we altered anything."

''Is it haunted?'' asked Cassie.

Isabel and Drake exchanged glances.

''Did you ever hear of any old house which was not supposed to be haunted?"

"So it is," said Cassie.

"It's the old part of the house you see, and in a house where people have been living for centuries there are bound to be legends."

Cassie shivered. I looked at Katie. I did not want her to be frightened but she was looking out of the window where she could see the stables. She said there was a man on a horse. Drake went over to her.

"Yes, that's the stables," he said. "Your pony is there."

He stood beside her talking to her.

"Who sleeps up there?" asked Cassie.

"The servants," Isabel told her.

"Have they ever. . ,"

"We don't talk about it. You know what people are? They build up things in their minds and start imagining things."

Grand'mere asked about the pictures.

"They are all members of the family," said Drake who had joined us with Katie.

"Are you here?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Our family home is really in Worcestershire. My father's sister came here a long time ago and it was reckoned to be her home. She was unmarried and devoted herself to the house and the affairs of the neighbourhood. And when I was as they say 'nursing' Swaddingham, it seemed a stroke of good luck that this place was in the family. I came here for a while and lived with her. She was a martinet... a woman of great character; but we liked each other; and when she died the house passed on to me."

"I think it is a wonderful house," I said.

Drake smiled at me happily. "I'm so glad."

True to his promise he took Katie riding. She was in a state of bliss; and it was such a joy to see her seated on the pony and Drake himself holding the leading reins and taking her round the paddock. With Grand'mere and Cassie I watched.

"Look at me," cried Katie. "I'm riding."

That was such a happy morning..

After luncheon, Katie was tired out-I think with excitement more than anything else. I thought she should have a rest, so she went to bed. Drake asked if I would care to go for a ride with him. I said I should love to. I had ridden a great deal when I lived at The Silk House but there had been few opportunities to do so since.

Grand'mere said she would like to rest too and Cassie volunteered to go and sit in my room so that if Katie woke she would not find herself alone in a strange house.

Drake procured a suitable mount for me and we rode off.

''I want to show you the neighbourhood,'' he said. ''It's rather beautiful. You wouldn't believe you were so near to London. It couldn't be more convenient for me.''

"No, and your sister is so helpful."

"I was hoping you would like her. Isabel is a good sort."

"I think she is charming."

"She likes you very much."

"She hardly knows me yet."

"She has heard of you . . . from me. She is full of admiration for your enterprise. I told her about all that. She thinks it is wonderful to have achieved so much."

"I must say I have enjoyed my work."

"Do you think people ever succeed in anything they don't enjoy?''

"Perhaps not."

''Still worried about that expansion?''

"Well, we do have it on our minds. The Countess talks of little else, and I know Grand'mere thinks we ought to do it. So do I for that matter. ..."

"Yes, you are deeply immersed."

"We have been lucky. Knowing the Countess was the best thing that could have happened."

"It was a way of escape . . . from your unhappiness."

"Yes, exactly that."

"But you are growing away from that now."