Editing Domestic Affairs

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''Late September - December 1867''<br>
''London and elsewhere''<br>

Hanny Saulnier arrives in London and sees Beignet. She wants to see her goddaughter Selene.  There is a verbal sparring match but the Madame comes away the winner.  She works her magic and brings Selene back to life and Selene is not pleased to find out her inheritance and her life’s work stolen out from under her. Beignet arranges for Saulnier to take up residence at Katherine’s old townhouse on Dorset Square at the exorbitant—well-nigh extortionist—rate of 100 pounds for the next six months. They wrangle back and forth on the price and in the end it comes down to something more reasonable.<br><br>

The balance of September until the end of November is a mish-mash of different itineraries and domestic business:<br><br>

#Katherine goes up to her family's estate outside of Scarborough in Yorkshire.
#Josephine arrives from her side trip on the Continent on the morning of the 19th and delivers her report to Colonel Fleming in her debriefing. He extracts a promise from her to visit his daughter for a fortnight in October. Josephine agrees and makes arrangements to live in London until then.
#Beignet and Prissy marry at the end of September.  
#Bertie takes Flora on an extended barge trip up and down the Thames for the sake of Flora's nerves.  They laze the days away leading up to their wedding in this manner, and put in only for supplies and amusements on dry land.  It is on one such jaunt that they run into an odd pub sign in Bourne End. They do not linger but conclude business and move on. 
#Ezekiel takes care of business with his family and comes to London on October 20th.  
#Josephine and he walk the city on the 20th at her invitation. 
#Josephine goes up north to visit Katherine on the 21st.  
#Katherine entertains her friend there until the 4th of Nov.
#Katherine goes south to meet Ezekiel’s parents on the 5th of Nov 
#Josephine goes to Birmingham to regularize her legal paperwork with her father’s family.  She is not entirely welcome but they give her her due: a stipend of 12s a month. 
#Katherine and Ezekiel are married at the end of November<br><br>

Immediately after Katherine and Ezekiel's wedding, they retire to their hotel room before the reception.  It's there they receive their friends and Saulnier and Selene for a visit that very quickly turns into a strategy session on the part of the French thaumaturge.  Saulnier manages to arrange for Josephine to be her government liaison and Josephine is neatly maneuvered to return Selene’s work from Sir John’s/Colonel Fleming’s hands.  Saulnier gives Josephine her card and Josephine promises that she will do what she can, though she cannot at this point promise success.<br><br> 

Katherine and Ezekiel shoo everyone out of their room and manage an hour and a half alone together before they must join the others celebrating their wedding.  They go on honeymoon to Scotland and Spain and spend a month abroad there before returning in December to witness Bertie and Flora’s wedding.<br><br>

They all decide to go investigate the Dashwood Estate in West Wycombe.  Beignet and Prissy dress up as itinerant Hobbit laborers to go investigate the pub in Bourne End, the one that had a sign that is a spitting image of Flora (pre-cat visage). <br><br>

They find out that there’s a ghost in white who haunts the caves on the Estate property. The barkeep/publican tells them the story and it’s upsetting—full of eerie doings and such—and requires a stiff drink afterward.<br><br>

Meanwhile, the rest of the party and Selene and Saulnier go on to the estate and camp indoors under its roof.  There is a groundskeeper of sorts, someone squatting in the groundskeeper cottage, and Bertie hires him to go in to the village of Wycombe to hire some servants.<br><br>

The party make the interior suitable for dossing down inside.<br><br>  

Josephine hears something outside. She peeks past the drapes and sees something white moving on the lawn below.  She dresses for combat and the weather outdoors and knocks on Ezekiel’s and Katherine’s door.  Ezekiel shuffles to it, opens it, sees Josephine vibrating with tension, says he’ll be out in a moment. Shuts the door. Wakes Katherine, and they dress and join their friend.  Josephine has knocked on Bertie and Flora’s door and after a moment they are all out the front door clutching candelabras and candle stubs.  Josephine is unable to make much of the tracks other than they are made by boots on two feet and they lead to the caves.  There is a huge skull embedded in the stone above the entrance to the caves--a warning if we should heed it. Flora channels—evil, they are. Ezekiel asks the Host for a clue—bad bad bad.<br><br>

No way we’re going in there in the middle of the night without Beignet’s magical skills.  We decide to go back to sleep and tackle the caves in the morning.  Come morning, the servants start showing up and Beignet and Prissy return from their fact finding mission on the back of a turnip cart.<br><br>



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