"Because it requires aristocrats to treat tenants as partners rather than property, and most of my peers would rather lose money than lose superiority."
"That's depressing."
"That's accurate."
James returned, now wearing his toga as a cape, dragging Margaret's daughter Sophie by the hand. They stood before Lady Agatha and performed what might have been a bow but looked more like synchronised falling.
"Are they broken?" Lady Agatha asked with concern.
"They're attempting manners," Margaret explained.
"Ah. Well, points for effort, minimal though it may be."
James beamed and offered Lady Agatha a slightly squashed biscuit from his pocket.
"He's sharing his pocket biscuit," Clara said. "That's unprecedented."
Lady Agatha accepted the biscuit with the gravity of someone receiving a state honor. "Thank you, young man."
"Biscuit!" James declared.
"Yes, I can see that. It's a very... compressed biscuit."
"It's been in his pocket for three days," Gabriel supplied helpfully.
"Ah. Aged to perfection then."
She took a small bite, chewed thoughtfully, and said, "I've had worse at court dinners."
James beamed and toddled off, apparently satisfied that his great-aunt was acceptable.
"You didn't have to eat it," Clara said.
"When a small tyrant offers you pocket biscuit, you eat it. It's basic diplomacy."
"Since when are you diplomatic?"
"Since I realised fighting you two was like fighting the tide, exhausting and ultimately pointless."
As the afternoon wore on, Clara watched Lady Agatha slowly thaw, eventually even helping James with his frog-training efforts and teaching the twins a card game that was definitely not appropriate for children but which they loved anyway.
"She's not so terrible," Clara said to Gabriel as they watched Lady Agatha demonstrate the proper way to hold a frog for maximum jumping potential.
"She's terrible in different ways now."
"Growth?"
"Exhaustion. She's too tired to maintain proper terribleness."
"She accepted us."
"She accepted defeat. There's a difference."
"Not mutually…"
“Complete that sentence and I shall insist upon a permanent separation.”
"You can’t separate from me. I'm carrying your theoretical second child."
