‘And how is the accommodation arranged?’ Fanny was looking back to the house now, and struck by the generosity of the size of each wing. ‘East and west, for example: are all the rooms guest suites?’ She rather hoped not. To have to entertain on quite such a scale could prove rather daunting.

‘The west houses the library at ground level with domestic offices beneath,’ Sir Edward supplied. ‘The east wing is entirely the nursery.’

‘All of it?’ Fanny could count at least ten windows.

‘I believe so,’ he replied. ‘The general idea is that there is room for all the children to live there until their majority. I gather it works very well. Mrs Andrews has been running it for years.’

Fanny studied the section. Alone, it was something of the size of, say, a good rectory. ‘And where does it connect with the main house?’ She scoped the elevation. ‘I cannot detect the join.’

Sir Edward furrowed his brow. ‘I believe it is possible to travel from one to the other from somewhere on the first floor, possibly the second – or is it the basement, now one comes to think? I cannot say that I have often had cause to visit it. Remind me to ask someone for you.’

‘And, sir – forgive me – but shall we be seeing your boys today? I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting the three youngest, and should very much like to.’

As Fanny was to be their new mother, the request was hardly over-assiduous. Indeed, now she thought, might it not have been preferable to meet children even before servants? Yet still, it prompted her fiancé to turn and gaze at her with a whole new affection.

‘That is a kind thought, madam.’ Sir Edward’s dear face was awash with pleasure. ‘Thank you for your interest. I shall have them brought out to us later. Now, shall we continue?’

Mersham-le-Hatch – or simply Hatch, as it was commonly known – was unusual in having two principal entrances, of equal usage. They had arrived on the south side – looking over the stables and closest to the cricket field – which served its purpose best in the summer months. There, guests could arrive, clean and dry, and swan through the great door and into the reception hall.

The north, though, where the couple now headed, was blessed with the view. Fanny gasped. Beyond the carriage sweep and terrace, the land fell – swooping – away from them. At the bottom, a fine lake glittered and beyond it, rich and verdant, half of Kent draped itself – voluptuously spread out like an artist’s model desperate to draw in the eye.