About this story
You are Theodora Martindale, directing a village flower festival when Mr Wingfield asks to speak with you alone: your brother Arthur, away fishing, is secretly engaged to a land agent's daughter, and the marriage may happen before your family even hears of it. With your parents abroad and the evening post closing within the hour, you and Wingfield weigh how sharply to warn Arthur and how little to judge a young woman neither of you has met. His answer reaches you a week later, already too late to stop.
How it opens
Village children gathered cowslips beneath an old elm while you helped them knot the flowers into balls.
You were Theodora Martindale, waiting for your father and brother to return while directing the small festival.
Miss Martindale, may I speak with you beyond the children? My errand is not an easy one.
I bring a letter from my cousin near Wrangerton, and I thought you should hear it privately.
Arthur went north to fish and has sent us no useful account since leaving.
He is physically well; forgive my hesitation for making you fear something worse.