The carriage carrying William, Seraphina, and Kai crested the final hill before the estate came into view, and William watched Liam, riding in the second carriage behind them, press his face nearly to the window when the house first appeared in the valley below.
The estate looked different in winter than William remembered it looking in any season before. The eastern gardens, visible from this elevation, had been coaxed into their essence-reactive bloom despite the cold — his mother's horticultural coordination evidently successful — small points of color scattered across the otherwise muted grey-brown winter landscape. Smoke rose from multiple chimneys. The long drive had been cleared of the week's light snow, gravel dark and damp beneath bare trees.
"It's enormous," Seraphina said, which from her was less an exclamation than an assessment.
"It's manageable," William said. "Once you know it."
