Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter.
13 Norwich Street, Yorke, Cumbria
11 October 1017
Dear Journal,
We have a solution for Mama, though it is not one I could have predicted. Though perhaps I should have, for I imagine it was as plain as the nose on Mama’s face for anyone with eyes to see it.
I returned to Yorke the morning of the 9th to find Mama more lively and willing to be pleased than she had been at any time this past fortnight, and judged it simply to be the continuing effects of Aunt Maggie’s talking-to. And it was; but not simply that. Rather, it is because Mama can now see beyond the tip of that same nose, and reflect on what she is seeing.
It is too foolish to be beating around the bush this way, and in my own journal! But the fact of the matter is too immense—I will not say enormous, for it is certainly not that—for me to dispense with in just a few words.
And the fact of the matter is that John Netherington-Coates, Grandmaster of the Cumbrian Former’s Guild and successor of my departed father, has asked Mama for her hand.
It seems that John first fell in love with Mama decades ago, and has been, if not pining precisely, yet eager to do her any service he might in all that time; and this, even more than guild politics, was the source of my father’s suspicion of him. Yet he has been a good friend to me, now that I have come to know him; and he has been a good friend to Mama since my father’s decline began.
Nor has he crossed any lines. When I had seen them together in the past he was perfectly cordial, and pleased to be of service, but he permitted no sign of his affection to escape until after my father’s passing. More: I think he made no sign at all while Mama was still enveloped in gloom and black crêpe.
Mama has not yet granted him her hand, I hasten to say; she feels it would not be proper until her year of mourning is complete. But that she returns his affection is plain to see, and it is only a matter of time.
There is little enough to be settled from a legal point of view. The details of my father’s estate were taken care of well before his death; Mama has a life interest in the income but not in the principle, which is held in trust for her grandchildren.
John, for his part, is clearly not marrying her for her money. His income has been the equal of my father’s, or perhaps more (for he has applied to business the hours my father spent on politics), and as he always dwelt abstemiously in his lodgings at the guild hall he has kept the lion’s share of it. He would be well-able to support Mama all on his own.
I do not wish to imply that Master Netherington-Coates is miserly; simply that his wants have been few, and, until now, unobtainable.
As the wedding cannot possibly be held until June, John has joined with me in encouraging Mama to come visit Amelie and the children in Armorica, to see what I have made for myself there. She is not eager, for she has never been a great traveller, and she doesn’t wish to be parted from John so soon; but she has agreed to go.
We shall spend some days making arrangements, shutting up the house here on Norwich Street, and visiting her acquaintance; and then, after a stop in Toulouse, we shall return home. And not before time!
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Zymurgia House 