for present comfort and for future good

[hermia_sophia]

Friday, June 1
Day 1461
The garden behind the WhitechapelI think that today I will stay in the garden. The sun is shining, and I can sit on the chaise longue with my shoes off and my feet up, and I have all of the books that I need with me - and the notebook for my project with Alice, too. I shall have to speak with her about that when she returns

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[hermia_sophia]

"Oh, that is good news,"

"I hope that this will help her even more." I do not think that Luc can understand us, but I lower my voice all the same, and wait until he's toddled a few steps away before I say, "She's doing much better as it is, but she's still…troubled by Carol more than I would like. Chester's going to stop in later, and we'll talk about it further."

"Yes, thank goodness. I have left Cora on the front desk, so I can stay with you all for a couple of hours now. Are you hungry yet? Or if you want to nap I'm sure Luc and I can amuse ourselves."

"Oh, no, I couldn't sleep." Sleep is hard to come by these days - it is impossible to get comfortable! I shift around in the chair again, trying to lean a little farther forward. "But thank you - and, oh, that's a very nice worm, darling," I interrupt myself to tell Luc. Most definitely a sentence that I never dreamed that I would be saying before I had a child. Nor would I have dreamed that Valmont would sit there calmly watching his trousers get covered in mud!

"Some food would be good, though, and Luc is probably hungry as well."

Now that he understands! His little head pops up, and he waves the worm around as he announces, "I'm hungry! The worm is hungry! We want cake!"

[valmont_vicomte]

"She's doing much better as it is, but she's still…troubled by Carol more than I would like. Chester's going to stop in later, and we'll talk about it further."

"The more help the better," I say. Several years on, Chester and I are on a more relaxed footing than we once were.

"I'm hungry! The worm is hungry! We want cake!"

"It is possible," I say mysteriously, "that when I bought bread I bought something sweet. But you will only find that out if you eat your lunch first."

"Why?"

"Sandwich before cake," I say, as I often do.

"Why?" That being Luc's favourite word.

"Because we are civilised people, not animals," I say, putting on a stern expression.

"I'm a LION," says Luc, and runs down the garden roaring. I laugh and get up.

"I will bring lunch outside - it's too nice a day to sit at the dining table. You stay here," I say to Hermia, kissing her again, and I go inside to the kitchen, where Luc draws out his stool with ceremony so he can stand with me at the kitchen counter. A large bowl of salad for Hermia and me, and Alice if she gets home in time, and sandwiches shaped like flowers for my trainee botanist. The domestic life suits me very well these days. I think it's what I always wanted, never having had it as I grew up, and taking dishes out to the garden, watching my son very seriously carry his plate in two hands across to his mother, I think that things have turned out better than I dreamed.