So he had been planning this for a while, had he? Without bothering to tell her of his intentions, in fact actively avoiding telling her when she had mentioned the cruise a month or so ago over dinner, noting to her son that Matilda and Rufina would likely come to regret being at sea when the season began.

Harriet opted to hold her tongue. Contrary to what she suspected her son thought of her she did not desire them to be joined at the hip but she did want to know what he was up to – the last time she had not known he had ended up in Azkaban along with Freddie and…

“Please tell me Arthur Pettigrew isn’t joining you?”

A quick engagement would be one thing, a further criminal record quite another!

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