Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter.
3 Madrigal Court, Yorke
26 October 1017
Armand,
I do wish you’d spent longer in Yorke on this trip; I should have liked to see a good deal more of you. For one tied to the War Records Office—as I increasingly seem to be—you are a breath of fresh air. Old Melliman’s not a bad sort of fellow, once you get to know him, but I fear he has begun to look upon me as his successor.
I fear even more that he might be correct. It’s steady work; it provides me with a modicum of funds; it keeps me in Yorke; and Madrigal Court is large enough that m’mother and father don’t object to having me rattling about the place.
It ain’t what I foresaw for myself, though I suppose I hadn’t ever had any real notion of what I would do after I left His Majesty’s service. Service with Lord Doncaster was a bit of all right, and I should be glad to return to him now that the Anne-Marie kerfuffle has been settled.
But I don’t believe that His Lordship would look warmly on me should I attempt to do so. Had he stayed in Mont-Havre, as I believe he would have been content to do, I might have remained with him indefinitely. But the kerfuffle left him flying high in Yorke, so to speak. I fear that he has become ambitious, and that a one-legged secretary just ain’t the thing.
He’s loyal to his former subordinates; I don’t doubt that I could fruitfully apply to him in a case of dire need. But I expect he feels he has provided for me by pointing me at the Records Office, and that any attempt to call on him for something riper would be seen as ingratitude and presumption.
It’s quiet down at the Tombs, as Melliman sometimes calls them. I spend my mornings bringing order out of chaos while Melliman responds to the odd request for information; and then he don’t object if I spend my afternoons writing my memoirs for his Lordship.
My evenings—the less said about my evenings, the better. There are few ladies who will take any interest in a fellow like me. The Royal Historical Society is largely populated by old fossils, but I confess it is beginning to look better than sitting at home.
I tell you, Armand, I look forward to my next chance to come out to Armorica and just be Uncle Jack once again.
Jack
____
Photo by Matthew Smith on Unsplash
Zymurgia House 