Pryor dined with them the following evening. When he asked where Arthur was, Ella merely said that he had gone to Bristol—Arthur’s family business was his own—but Minette excitedly informed him that Arthur was bringing his great-nephew back with him, and that they’d have a child in the house at long last, and they were refurbishing one of the bedrooms, and—
“I doubt Mr. Pryor wishes to talk about children,” Ella said, trying to redirect an enumeration of the changes she and Minette had wrought in the green bedchamber.
But it appeared that she was wrong. Pryor eagerly plunged into a discussion about what they needed to buy. “You said he likes to draw? You’ll need crayons and pencils and paints and lots of paper. He probably loves building things, too—I know I did!—towers out of dominoes a
