And we quit talking about The Fund, as fascinating as it was, and started doing better, far more fascinating (and fun) things.
In the end, with all that stuff in the attics, they decided on non-equal thirds.
Except for a few pieces they intended to keep, some of it was being donated to museums, and the rest of it was going to be auctioned, with three quarters of the proceeds going into The Fund, and one quarter to charities the duchy patronized.
That said, Battle told me, the low end of what they expected to get from the auction would, “Make things much easier for Fury and Noble, darling.”
Oh yeah.
We’d picked our top favorites.
Mm-hmm.
Things were progressing very nicely (see? I could do an understatement too).
Just saying, I didn’t think Battle was falling anymore either.
But when it was all said and done, all of what was in the attics was going to go so Prue could reconfigure part of them into her own studio. And Battle was going to reconfigure the other parts into apartments so Scotty and Harry (or whoever was in their positions) could be closer to the house for security purposes. They could then rent the steward’s cottage to increase the estate’s income, and his sisters’ allowances.
Which I thought was a rad idea.
Onward from all of that, I’d taken an afternoon off to clear the cobwebs, and we’d all gone back to Ravenna for another reading (sans Tempie, and not only because she was in London).
Ravenna still didn’t know where Charlie’s letters were.
But she decided it.
In August, Prue and Chassie were going to visit Switzerland.
And spending that time with the clairvoyant decided it for me.
Ravenna was the shit.
Last semi-boring but still not boring (because it was fun) thing that happened: I’d taught Prue and Chassie how to toast bread and make oatmeal (considering there was instant, it was just showing them how to measure milk, and they both already knew how to use a microwave).
We also made pancakes together.
Chassie did all the flipping.
She didn’t mess it up once.
The big stuff:
As mentioned, Hamish had become one with the crew.
Tempie spent more time in London, but they both always came back to The Downs for the weekends.
I missed her.
But I loved how happy she was with Hamish, with Chassie and Prue moving on with their lives, just happy.
And speaking of Chassie…
She and Christian were dating.
Christian, we would come to learn, was not only smart about gymnosperms (don’t ask me, but Christian could chat with Chassie about them for an hour), he’d clued in that Chassie was at the very least shy, so he was taking it slow.
That said, he came to the roast I made every Sunday.
