The third Christmas question.
3. Miss Turner (aka the Amazons great aunt) and Peter Marlow are discussing Christmas decorations. What are their opinions?
Supposing the Falconer’s Lure dates for the Marlow family. If Peter is 14 in 1948, he was born in 1934. Miss Turner on the other hand is born in 1870 at the absolute latest, I should say, and she disapproves of boys in general. Mind you, Peter might have been angelic “Bubbles” looking little boy, which he would absolutely hate but might appeal to someone who wants her great nieces to wear white frilly best frocks every day. Mrs Marlow’s mother is a friend of the great aunt’s friend. Mrs Marlow is commanded to visit said friend who lives not too far from Hampstead and deliver… something in the run up to Christmas 1938? The older Marlows are at school, but she takes Peter, Ginty, Ann and the twins with her. Ann offers to help with putting up the decorations. All the small Marlows help. Peter (about 4 or 5 here) help set up the nativity scene but poses two of the painted wooden sheep doing something that he observed sheep doing on his last visit to Trennels in November. Peter is much offended by being seized by the arm and called a nasty, disgusting little boy with a depraved mind and calls Miss Turner a horrid, rude old bat. Things go downhill from there. Ginty and Lawrie hide under the gate-legged dining room table. Nicola, and eventually Ann, try to remove the Miss Turner’s grasp from Peter’s arm. Nicola kicks the great aunt and is smacked quite hard. At which point Nancy turns up at the front door, having been told she had better see the great aunt at some point over Christmas. Lawrie is indignant because the Marlows were taken home before afternoon tea which was quite obviously going to include cream meringues. Peter is most of all indignant because he was called a liar when he said he didn’t see what he had done wrong. Nicola is indignant because someone had hurt her brother. Ann is quietly and privately indignant because she was blamed for not keeping a better eye on the others by her mother. The friend is indignant because, after all, it was her house that Maria Turner had tried to lay down the law in. The fact that Nancy was actually the one to sort out the situation didn’t help. Pam Marlow is indignant - no further explanation required.
The great aunt is indignant because Nancy ensures that Peter is not made to apologise and actually apologises for the incident to Pam Marlow (although she does save face for the great aunt a little, citing misunderstanding.) Later on that evening, the great aunt notes (with great indignation, naturally) two camels from the nativity scene posed on a high book shelf that none of the young Marlows, the friend or the friend’s long suffering maid could reach. Somehow Miss Turner does not believe Mrs Marlow had put them there.
Supposing the Falconer’s Lure dates for the Marlow family. If Peter is 14 in 1948, he was born in 1934. Miss Turner on the other hand is born in 1870 at the absolute latest, I should say, and she disapproves of boys in general. Mind you, Peter might have been angelic “Bubbles” looking little boy, which he would absolutely hate but might appeal to someone who wants her great nieces to wear white frilly best frocks every day. Mrs Marlow’s mother is a friend of the great aunt’s friend. Mrs Marlow is commanded to visit said friend who lives not too far from Hampstead and deliver… something in the run up to Christmas 1938? The older Marlows are at school, but she takes Peter, Ginty, Ann and the twins with her. Ann offers to help with putting up the decorations. All the small Marlows help. Peter (about 4 or 5 here) help set up the nativity scene but poses two of the painted wooden sheep doing something that he observed sheep doing on his last visit to Trennels in November. Peter is much offended by being seized by the arm and called a nasty, disgusting little boy with a depraved mind and calls Miss Turner a horrid, rude old bat. Things go downhill from there. Ginty and Lawrie hide under the gate-legged dining room table. Nicola, and eventually Ann, try to remove the Miss Turner’s grasp from Peter’s arm. Nicola kicks the great aunt and is smacked quite hard. At which point Nancy turns up at the front door, having been told she had better see the great aunt at some point over Christmas. Lawrie is indignant because the Marlows were taken home before afternoon tea which was quite obviously going to include cream meringues. Peter is most of all indignant because he was called a liar when he said he didn’t see what he had done wrong. Nicola is indignant because someone had hurt her brother. Ann is quietly and privately indignant because she was blamed for not keeping a better eye on the others by her mother. The friend is indignant because, after all, it was her house that Maria Turner had tried to lay down the law in. The fact that Nancy was actually the one to sort out the situation didn’t help. Pam Marlow is indignant - no further explanation required.
The great aunt is indignant because Nancy ensures that Peter is not made to apologise and actually apologises for the incident to Pam Marlow (although she does save face for the great aunt a little, citing misunderstanding.) Later on that evening, the great aunt notes (with great indignation, naturally) two camels from the nativity scene posed on a high book shelf that none of the young Marlows, the friend or the friend’s long suffering maid could reach. Somehow Miss Turner does not believe Mrs Marlow had put them there.