Chessie had other ideas.
‘How’s your family?’ she asked lightly.
I glanced at her, my nose wrinkled. ‘Oh, well enough. You’ll see enough of them at the Christmas party, I believe.’
‘What, all of them?’
‘Dad and Jessica and Geoff, obviously. Uncle Joe. I think Grandfather will be spending Christmas with Uncle Dietrich and his fifty thousand offspring…’
‘No Uncle Abraham?’
I shrugged. ‘I haven’t heard from him in months. Grandfather would have written if anything was wrong, so I’m not worried. He’s probably just found a new field of interest. But anyway, if he fell down an academic rabbit hole, I doubt he knows what month it is, much less that Christmas is coming up.’
She laughed. ‘The pater will have invited him, naturally. Perhaps we ought to send a reminder.’
‘You’re assuming he r
