The Landower Legacy by Victoria Holt

my debut into society. I dread it. I hate the thought of those parties and meeting people. I’m no good at it. You would do very well. There’s nobody here to talk to really … Miss Bell says it is to be expected and she is sure that if only I will make up my mind all will be well, it will.
    “Mama has never come back. She never will. I thought she had just gone away for a little while, but nobody speaks of her and when I mention her to Miss Bell she changes the subject as though it is something shameful.
    “I wish Mama would come back. Papa is more stern than ever. He is mostly in London and I am in the country, but if I ‘come out’ I shall have to be there, shan’t I? Oh, I do wish you would come home.
    “When are you coming back? I asked Miss Bell. She said it would depend on Papa. I said, ‘But surely Papa wants to see his own daughter.’ And she turned away and said, ‘Caroline will come back when it is right and proper in your father’s eyes for her to do so.’
    “I thought that so odd. It is all so mysterious, Caroline, and I’m scared of going into society.
    “Do write often. I love hearing about the bees and that quaint man at the lodge, and about the Landowers and Cousin Mary. I think you are liking them all rather a lot. Don’t like them more than you like me, will you? Don’t like Cornwall more than you like home.
    “See if you can get Cousin Mary to send you home. Perhaps she could write to Aunt Imogen or something.
    “Remember I do miss you. It wouldn’t be half as bad if you were home.
    “Your affectionate sister, Olivia Tressidor.”
    I thought a great deal about Olivia and wished that she could join me in Cornwall and share in this carefree absorbing life into which I had stepped.
    Sometimes I used to feel that it was going on forever. I should have known better than that.
    There were times when Jago Landower would lapse into a melancholy mood. I guessed he was really troubled, as this was quite alien to his nature.
    He admitted to me that there seemed to be no solution for his family but to sell the house.
    I tried to comfort him: “You’ll have that lovely old farmhouse and you won’t be far away.”
    “Don’t you see that makes it worse? Imagine being close to Landower and knowing that it belonged to someone else.”
    “It’s only a house.”
    “Only a house! It’s Landower! It’s been our home for centuries … and we are the ones to lose it. You can speak lightly of it, Caroline, because you don’t understand ” He paused. Then he went on: “You’ve never seen it. Only from the outside. I’m going to show you Landower. Then perhaps you will understand.”
    That was how I came to enter Landower and from then on I fell under its spell and I fully understood the anguish which the family was suffering.
    I had grown to love Tressidor Manor. In spite of its antiquity it was cosy. Landower was scarcely that. It was magnificent, splendid, crumbling perhaps, but as soon as I stepped inside, I felt that it was important that this house should not be allowed to fall into decay. As I approached I felt the full impact of the embattled walls and a shiver of delight went through me as I passed under the gateway and into the courtyard. I felt as though the centuries had been captured and were held fast within those walls. I was stepping right back into the fourteenth century when the place had been built.
    There was a heavy nail-studded door through which we passed and we were in the banqueting hall. I was aware of Jago’s immense pride and I now fully understood.
    He said: “Although Landower was built in the fourteenth century, it has been restored and built on since. Landower has grown with the centuries, but the banqueting hall is one of the oldest parts of the house. One thing they have changed. Originally the fire was in the centre of the room. I’ll show you just where. The great fireplace was put in during Tudor times. That’s the minstrels’ gallery up there. Look at