Dearest Jessamine,
Our sister is dead. The Bulstrode one. Mother is incredibly sick with dragon pox.

Yours,
Lily

Having missed the daily mail delivery at breakfast due to her morning detention, which, today was her last day and she was thrilled, she walked over to the owlery to collect anything she may have gotten. She frowned, at first, when she saw her sister-in-law’s seal and she couldn’t think of any good reason that Liliana had to contact her. Upon opening up the letter she let out an audible gasp - how rude! Cruel jokes like this were simply unbecoming and so she huffed, furiously writing a reply.

Jessamine,
Your language in your last letter is vulgar, unbecoming, and rashly inappropriate for the occasion. I have promptly delivered it to your father.

Feel free to ask him to verify the information that I had originally relayed to you, but dare not to bother my husband. I had originally wished to spare either the trouble given the circumstances, yet your behavior has led me no choice. Should you not write to your father first, I am sure he will write to you.

From,
Mrs. L. Parkinson

Later that day, when Jessamine received yet another owl, a response from Liliana, she didn’t feel so haughty anymore. In fact, she turned a ghostly shade of white at the prospect of her father’s reaction to her unladylike language in her last letter and she thought she was going to be sick. Scribbling a quick reply and sending it back, she didn’t know which was worse - that this was a cruel prank to get her into trouble with her father, or that her mother really was ill and her sister really was dead... and she dreaded her father’s letter which would tell her which one it was; she had no choice but to just wait helplessly and see.