Her brother’s greatest kindness – and he had many so Marlena did not count this lightly – was that he had never, ever asked her about her romantic life. For others it was like a compulsive sickness; most people could not conceive of why an attractive woman from a good family had never been courted once, why she rejected the ease with which she might find herself in a comfortable, companionable marriage. She actively avoided her sister’s circle because they looked at her like she was a disease they could catch and, unfortunately, she wasn’t yet old enough for the venerable spinsters she spent her days at work idolising to consider her one of them.

It was good to have goals though.

“How is work by the way? Now that you’re nearly the boss?” She smiled wryly. Eugene was only four years older than her but he was a step towards having the run of the department – she expected she would have to work ten years to his two to reach the same position but perhaps one day she would? “Is the Department falling apart without Mrs Skeeter?”

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