About this story
His brother Henry Westwick comes to say goodbye before leaving England, and between them you weigh how much blame belongs to Montbarry and how much to the new Countess. After Henry leaves, your former pupil Emily Ferrari arrives in tears, asking for a reference that would place her husband in the newlyweds' own household.
How it opens
A small fire burned too brightly for the mild day, fed with letters torn once across and never reread.
The drawing room held your mother's watercolour, a worktable, and the silence of a modest life shared with one nurse.
Old NurseMaster Henry is below, asking only to shake hands before he leaves England tonight.
Choose
Show him in; old friendship should not be punished for new grief.
Ask him to wait until the last letter is gone.