Becky continued to blossom under Callie’s care, the gardens at the mansion took on an autumnal cast, Figgins started talking about instructing the gardeners to lay in firewood for the winter and having the storm windows put up, Mrs. Granger and a minion hired for the purpose finished the yearly potting, pickling, and preserving, and Aubrey’s business interests flourished. Mark Henderson made his weekly visits to Aubrey’s house on schedule. Mrs. Granger, when she wasn’t preserving foodstuffs, continued to prepare delicious meals, she and Delilah kept the house tidy and dusted, and Callie continued to answer Becky’s letters to her mother in heaven. And then there was Mrs. Bridgewater. “The damned woman’s driving me mad,” Aubrey told Mark one day as the two men sat in Aubrey’s library office, sipping a pre-prandial sherry after slaying the day’s commercial dragons. The mail had been delivered earlier in the day, and now Aubrey’s insides tightened when he picked up the letter Figgins had just brought to him, He eyed the envelope with misgiving, recognizing the fiercely upright penmanship inscribed on it.
