“How’d you get on?” Prudence asked me.
“Well, I’m about a third of the way done with cataloging and organizing.”
“Cataloging?” Temperance asked.
“Everything set out there for me,” I answered. “My book won’t have footnotes, but my author’s note will, as will my personal notes, and I’ll need to keep track of where I read something. To make this more straightforward for me later, I start by cataloging my research documents. It also helps if I have to go back to something. It’ll be easier to find it.”
Fitzgibbons was there with a tray on which was my paloma. I took it and thanked him.
“No offense, dear, but that all sounds dreadfully boring,” Temperance decreed.
I shrugged. “To each their own.”
“Indeed,” she replied.
I glanced at Battle to see he was having some quiet conversation with Chastity.
And that would be the theme for the night, through drinks and dinner.
Prudence, Temperance and I would chat, Chastity and Battle had their own whisper thing going on, and only occasionally would they join in with ours.
And on those occasions, it was only Chastity that joined. Battle would just listen.
No one acted like this was weird.
But it was kinda weird.
For the most part, even if I was seated right next to him again, it was like I wasn’t there.
Outside the brow raise, gone was the high and mighty duke, also gone was the flirty player.
At least Bartholomew hadn’t forgotten me.
He’d left his daddy to come lie beside me during drinks and resumed his snooze between Battle and me at dinner.
But I discovered the five-course meal the night before was, in fact, a celebration, because last night’s dinner started with a salad, then a main and finally a dessert.
It was just as delicious, but it wasn’t as grand.
Or as long.
And after it, Chastity and Battle immediately disappeared (alas, Bartholomew went with them). Temperance joined Prudence and I for another drink in the plum parlor, but she eventually wandered away, leaving Prudence and I to chitter chatter for a spell, this being when Gingerface made his appearance, and he and I got introduced.
Eventually, we both got drowsy enough to call it a night, and Prudence and I walked up the stairs together, parting on the landing for her to go south, and me to go north.
Which brought me to now.
Glastonbury day.
We were leaving after breakfast.
And I was thinking His Grace probably thought I was a bit of fun.
But now he had his signed agreement. I wouldn’t write anything he didn’t want anyone to read. I was his sister’s friend, not his. A guest in his house, though he wasn’t there normally, and after he went back to regularly scheduled programming, he would rarely see me.
I’d then be in a cottage an hour away, and except for him approving my chapters, he’d have nothing to do with me.
And I would have nothing to do with him.
