June 1921

Robert and Cora

"We've all been invited to Duneagle in September."

"Oh dear."

"Don't you want to go? I had the impression that you thought it was beautiful there."

"Yes, I do. But we'll be travelling with five young children."

"There will also be eight of us and we will have to take the nanny with us."

"I am not sure if Susan and Shrimpie know how many children we'll be bringing with us. It is possible that they think that the children will stay home."

"Well, I'll mention the children to Shrimpie in my next letter. He is unlikely to tell me that he doesn't want the children there, but at least they are warned that way."

"Tom and Sybil might not want to come."

"Tom is excited about going. I've already told him and Matthew. They are both very interested in finding out about how Duneagle is run, how it can be kept the way it is without modernizing it. They are less interested in stalking though. Especially Tom. I think he'd like to drive around the estate all day long. And Matthew would only be too happy to join him."

"Have you told them about the bagpipers yet?"

"No. I thought their wives might want to tell them about that."

"You just didn't want to put them off."

"I want the whole family to come. Even if Matthew and especially Tom might behave unconventionally while we are there."

"It will be nice for Edith. To get away from it all."

"Do you think she still hasn't gotten over Anthony jilting her at the altar?"

"I am not sure. But she has to watch her happily married sisters all the time."

"She will have to do that at Duneagle too."

"Yes. But it will be a different setting. New things to see, different people to talk to."

"Cora, Edith spends half her time in London these days. Don't you think she meets people there?"

"She meets her editor quite a lot."

"Should I be worried?"

"No. She is an intelligent adult."

"That doesn't mean that I won't worry."

"I know darling. You always worry about the girls."

"I am their father. How could I not worry? But I worry about Edith the most. Sybil and Mary have found their positions in life. They are both very happily married, Mary has her charities and helps you run the house and Sybil is involved with the hospital so much that she spends more time there than at home. Julia is a mixture of Sybil and Mary, which drives me up the wall sometimes, but mostly makes me confident that we don't really have to worry about her. But Edith has never had it easy. I know she likes her work as a journalist and while I may not agree with her publishing her own column I am still very proud of her for doing it. As strange as that might sound."

"Tell her that."

"I will. I should have long ago. But I still worry for her."

"What about?"

"I don't think that she's happy. Not really. But I want her to be happy. As happy as her sisters. As happy as us."

"Kiss me."