Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter.
15 July 1023, 3 Madrigal Court, Yorke
My dearest cousin Armand,
I can explain everything.
First, I would beg your forbearance in the matter of redirecting the Amelie from Toulouse to Yorke, save that your Captain Grier assures me that he would have been touching down in Yorke in any case. I thought as much, but found it best to make sure.
Second, I do beg your forbearance in the matter of the Amelie‘s passenger, Miss Cathy Gamble, the bearer of this letter.
As you’ll recall, little Jane and I have been staying at Achin Court with Maximilian’s parents, Sir Alexander and Lady Cressida; Cathy lives nearby, or rather she did so until today.
But I get ahead of myself.
Cathy is my friend; and more particularly she is the sister of Maximilian’s boyhood friend, John Gamble. We have discovered a great need for her to travel to some land across the Abyss from Cumbria, and the farther from Nexinghamshire the better. That is not my story to tell, not in full, but it involves an unfortunate entanglement between Cathy and Maximilian’s brother Octavian.
Oh, dear. That last sentence was almost entirely misleading. We are not sending Cathy abroad due to any current indiscretions.
Due to a past (and, I will say, much repented and indeed much atoned for) error of Cathy’s, Octavian is now afflicted by a curse. Octavian wishes to marry, not Cathy, but another young woman, but is unable so long as the curse is troubling him. Orthopractor Simms has told me that the curse is unlikely to be broken but that crossing the Abyss will attenuate its effects, and that the only sure way to deal with the matter is for either Cathy or Octavian to be removed from Cumbria. As Octie is Sir Alexander’s heir, and as the original fault was Cathy’s, we—that, John, Cathy, and I—have determined that she is the one who must go.
You are no doubt alive with curiosity about the whole affair, and I have instructed Cathy to tell you all; indeed, this was the price of my help in this matter. I needn’t say that I trust your discretion.
But there is more. John is a wizard, a wizard of an odd and eccentric sort: he delights in building things and making them run by magic. He has met with little success in Cumbria, for of course his creations only function so long as a wizard is there to power them, and no wizard will be inclined to do such work day in and day out. He has spoke with Dr. Tillotson and our friend Jérôme Lavigne, and has a good notion of how an appropriately-skilled former might further his work; but Jérôme is the only such former in Cumbria at present, and he is much taken up with his own work with Dr. Tillotson.
By now I am sure you have traced the lines of my plan.
John is presently occupied with closing up and selling his property in Nexinghamshire. Once he has done so he intends to take passage to Armorica; he intends to re-establish himself there, in Bois-de-bas in fact, and in close proximity to Tuppenny Wagons by preference. I am certain the two of you will have much to talk about, and that you will find a way to make John’s ideas and designs suitable for general use.
In the meantime, I pray that you will treat Cathy with all gentleness. She has had a time; it has been wholly her fault, but she has suffered much for her errors; and if she is to move on she must, by the nature of things, make a new start in a new place. Armorica is just the place for new starts, n’est-ce pas?
And if you now have a priest of the Old Religion in Bois-de-bas, perhaps you might wish to introduce the two of them.
I thank you for your forbearance once again, for I know I have been most high-handed.
Trusting in your kindness, I remain,
Your meddlesome cousin,
Amelia
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