She continued with Melanie’s schooling, making silent and very slow progress with her. But it was progress all the same, and she was convinced that behind the shutters that the little girl had apparently put up to keep the world out there was a very active and intelligent brain. The afternoons were still devoted to the open air. Melanie loved her rambles in the woods and up to the waterfall, and often they would go further afield in search of Ben, working in some far corner of the Estate. Rachel was very fond of Ben in a sisterly kind of way. He was good-natured and fun to be with. But he would never, ever, be anything more to her than a very good friend, she was sure of that. And for his part there had had only ever been one woman in his life, it was becoming increasingly plain each time Rachel talked to him, and that woman was Celia Duncan, whom he had worshipped from afar, it would seem; putting her on a pedestal high above all other women. Celia Duncan.
