- Brian likes the odour of school
- Elizabeth really meant it
- Jennifer worried about being left alone with Brian?
- The cows weaken a post by scratching
- It gets worse for David
- The plot of Mistress of the Paddocks
- Is Byron based on Brian?
Brian likes the odour of school
[Brian] “That smell, the smell of school …”
Brian, Jennifer and Ruairi are in seeing a potential boarding school – which is bringing back very happy memories indeed for Brian. He reckons his time at boarding school were the best days of his life …
[Jennifer] “thanks very much!”
It would seem Ruairi is delighted with the school, but Jennifer is actually now not sounding so sure.
The only enthusiasm Jennifer can muster up is
[Jennifer] “they seem to know how to feed them there”
Elizabeth really meant it
Elizabeth didn’t write that letter to David and Ruth without first being utterly resolved to removing them as named guardian for Lily and Freddie in her will.
Elizabeth is asking Shula for her and Alistair to be their guardians, if something happens.
Shula is aghast.
[Shula] “Do you have to? I know how you fell about him at the moment …but surely … is this really necessary? Hasn’t he suffered enough?”
[Elizabeth] “I’m suffering too. Do you think this what I want? How can I have the person who took Freddie and Lily’s father away caring for them if anything happened to me?”
Shula tries to tell Elizabeth to wait, to think about it over time. But Elizabeth has made up her mind.
Elizabeth also forces Shula to make a decision – saying she’ll have to look elsewhere (even outside of the family … yikes!) if Shula doesn’t say yes.
[Shula, very reluctantly] “Of course we would do it. I just hate feeling like I have to take sides”
Elizabeth reckons this is all for Freddie and Lily’s sake, and that she also has to feel comfortable with arrangements, in case anything doesn’t happen to her.
I can see Elizabeth’s point. Of course no parent would want something they don’t trust as their child’s guardian.
But, as we all know, Elizabeth is overreacting.
Completely.
Jennifer worried about being left alone with Brian?
Or, to be more exact, being left alone without Ruairi and Phoebe – with Brian busy elsewhere.
[Brian] “And just think about it darling. In-between times, there will be more time for us …I admit I haven’t always been as good as my word in the past … but I really think Jenny this is our time”
Jennifer isn’t convinced. Brian will be busy with The Mart. Then they’ll always be something else.
The cows weaken a post by scratching
Using the post to scratch again, rather than somehow clawing it (cause that would be odd for a cow to do).
It gets worse for David
[David] “How could she think it Ruth … whatever she thinks of me, how could she possibly think i would do my upmost for Freddie and Ru8th if anything happened to her … that we would?”
Obviously (and rightly) still upset after receiving Elizabeth’s letter, David’s hit a new all-time low.
But … it gets even lower.
Shula turns up, to tell David and Ruth that she’s so sorry. Sorry that Elizabeth has removed them from being Freddie and Lily’s guardians – and sorry that she and Alistair have had to take their place.
[Shula] “She practically blackmailed me … I’m so sorry”
David and Ruth didn’t know that Elizabeth was going to ask Shula, so it comes as yet another blow. It makes it all absolute and final.
It also makes David feel that there’s no point in anything, especially his work at Brookfield.
[David] “I promised dad I’d run it for the good of the family … and look at what I’ve done to the family”
Ruth is absolutely furious.
While Ruth can see that Shula had no choice, she also thinks Elizabeth is not behaving rationally
[Ruth] “It’s like an obsession with her”
Ruth wants to go and see Elizabeth (probably to have a hair pulling match), but David reckons there’s nothing anyone can do.
*sigh*
Just when David was being a bit more upbeat.
Better keep a close eye on sharp implements, long lengths or rope and all pills.
Think we’re back to David suicide watch.
The plot of Mistress of the Paddocks
As read by Mr Brian Aldridge.
[Brian] “Avid horsewoman Miranda Birdsaw is used to taming stallions. But When she falls for married local landowner Byron Ridgeway has she met her match”
He also reads a passage out from the book – something about a combine, and “ears of barley whispering against his thighs”
Does sound rather awful.
Is Byron based on Brian?
Jennifer sounded rather furious after she’d (finally) finished Mistress of the Paddocks.
Could just be because she was still upset about Ruairi and Phoebe, but …
… we know that the author is local – and that she (or he) has based some of the characters on locals (according to Pat).
Married local landowner, having an affair … who else could it be?
Jennifer seems to think it’s Brian. She tries to give him a heart attack with too much cream.
(to be fair, Brian might need to learn that you don’t have to eat something just because someone has put it on your plate).
2 comments:
Of course Byron is Brian and his lady love is Caroline. That's why, after reading the book, she announced that she wouldn't be attending the next meeting.
Aha! You're right - so obvious that you had to point it out!!! That never even crossed my mind. Shobe more about it tonight. Mind you, Shula is also a big horsey lady ...
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