Journal,
What a few weeks it has been!
I am afraid that my lazy pen will dictate that I give you only the bare bones of what has happened.
So, for one. The canals froze! I ran into Mr. Baroque when I gave into a girlish urge to go skating along Grand Canal. I feel slightly less hostile toward him as a result.
Then, in the evening everyone went out for a skate, there was much joking and snow-ball throwing and general merriment. Somehow I managed to convince Gus to skate with me from Iron Bay to City Hall so I could show him the lights, when we arrived he remarked how romantic it all looked. I had to agree, it was very romantic, and just as I was thinking I might be in danger of falling for the man, Mr. Tenk showed up.
Thank goodness, I'm sure...
We had a lovely little chat, but I'm afraid I had had a bit to much laudanum (which, I suppose, makes up for today, during which I've had a bit too little of it...) and so my tongue was a little looser than usual. I made the mistake of mentioning to Mr. Tenk that my little condition was relatively recent and not something I had been born with.
Fortunately I did at least have the presence of mind to suggest that I had a headache and would rather discuss such things at a different time.
I'm sure he's forgotten about it by now.
Mr. Underby seems to have vanished, in his place we now have the oh-so-charming Miss Wickentower, who, we've been told, is his wife.
Honestly, can you imagine being married to that man, Journal? I certainly can't.
She was at the finish line of the evening Canal Ice Skating Race, attempting to shoo everyone off as quickly as possible. She indicated that Mr. Underby was "resting." I wonder if perhaps she has put him to rest for us?
Should we thank her or throw her in jail, I wonder? Can we do both?
I wish I had been there for most of the conversation between her, TInus and Mr. Tenk but I'm afraid Mr. Tenk had one of those special cages which Kaylee built for him and that thing makes me feel like all the life is running out of me if I am too close to it. A very peculiar feeling. So I left rather in a rush.
Let me see...what else has happened....
Ahh, had a run-in with the obnoxious Miss Steele who, for a change, proved herself useful. I have now (I'm certain) discovered the source of my troubled dreams. I do believe I have taken care of it, but we shall see. Also, evidently, Miss Steele had her baby and it was stolen...very convenient, if you ask me. The woman has done nothing but wish it gone from the moment she discovered she was with child. If she only knew...
Ah, hmm...I do believe that brings us to shortly after the baby vanished yesterday evening. I had run into Miss Kaylee and invited her into the house for tea. We discovered Mr. Tenk at my fireplace and he had a crow in one of those special cages with him. He has, evidently, decided to keep the bird as a pet and has even named it.
I think Mr. Lovely is an odd name for a crow...but who am I to judge? The thing is his pet.
I managed to keep a good distance from the cage (I don't have to be far from it to feel fine, it turns out) and neither Kaylee nor Tenk noticed if I was acting odd. Mr. Tenk had Kaylee clip Mr. Lovely's wings (she was almost too afraid to do it, I've never met someone so afraid of birds...) and said he wanted to make the bird a special set of cuffs for its legs so it couldn't fly off. He kept talking about wanting to teach it tricks and kept feeding the bird my cookies, which it seemed extremely fond of.
After they left I cleaned up the feathers from the floor and carried them out to the rubbish pile. There was one nearly whole feather in the lot which I have kept for myself. I keep puzzling over it, wondering, did Mr. Tenk finally catch the bird he was looking for?
I'd best to the apothecary,
my headache is worse than ever.
~S
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