The Delano palatial estate was large, and that was an understatement. Almost a hundred rooms, Beatrice boasted to anyone who cared to listen, which was a bit of an exaggeration, of course!

Set at the end of a winding drive lined with ancient oaks, the mansion stood in grand, gentle defiance of time—vast, sprawling, and full of life. Its architecture was an elegant patchwork of eras: a wide front with high-arched windows and ivy-clad stone, wings that had been added over generations, and a warm, terracotta-tiled roof stretching out in all directions like the skirts of a noblewoman settling into her chair.

The grounds unfolded endlessly around it—rolling lawns broken...