B

I cannot believe it! I simply do not understand how this could have happened! The silly child must have been meeting in secret, but with whom? The gardener’s boy at Blindingham? The herdsman? She must have been well advanced in her condition before we arrived in Town.

I had thought her to have been too busy for romantic assignations whilst in the Country. Indeed I know that when she was not tending to me she was kept hard at it by Mr Hatherwick, who brooks no laziness.

What shall I tell her Mother?

Oh, it is too tiresome to have to deal with! I shall walk in the Square and ponder my next actions.

Yrs in botheration

E