Til Monday

My Dearest Boo

Thank you for your note, which the Boy brought up this morning. How exciting that you are to be Wintering so close by! I am delighted with your plans for us and will be sure to bring my finest dresses so that I may attend as many parties as I can. I have been so short of intelligent company here and will devour every piece of gossip that passes before me. How clever you are to have sought out the most fashionable people and how excited I am to be meeting them with you!

Mr Hatherwick has declared himself delighted with the services of the Girl and is keen to take her to London in advance of our planned arrival so that she may prepare the rooms for me. How thoughtful he is. I am so fortunate to have married a man who takes notice of domestic arrangements. He is most anxious that I am to concentrate on my own interests and not to concern myself with household duties. Lord bless him, he has even instructed the staff here not to bother me with news of his comings and goings.

"Effie," he said to me only yesterday, "You must not tire yourself with watching out for me to arrive home. Go through your day as if it matters not whether I am present." How many wives can claim to enjoy such solicitous attention from their husbands, Boo? Not many, I would venture.

Oh, Boo it will not be long now before you and I are arm in arm together in Town. I wish to hear everything and anything of your life in London. Are you and Mr Pitt still enjoying married life? I should not ask such an intimate question, I know, but I am keen to know that you are happy.

So, til Monday next, Dear Boo. I see from my window that Mr Hatherwick and the Girl are setting my cases onto the carriage and I must go down to ensure that they are strapped tight. The Girl is strong-bodied but a bit simple, I fear. She was engaged in our employ whilst I was away visiting Mother, so I do not know where she was in service prior to that. Mr Hatherwick says he had to spend a goodly amount of time with her before she understood exactly what he wanted her to do.

Boo! I must leave off writing this minute! The Girl must have fallen from the mounting plate! I can see that Mr Hatherwick has her in his arms and she seems fainted dead away! How fortuitous that he was so close by when she fell.

Monday, Boo, Monday!

Yrs

Effie x