To think we should have finished off the Queen of Huns?

[Hullygully]

If all of this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, Nappy, then no, you've not missed a thing!

Do pull up a chair. Major, could you pass Nappyaddict the roasted ortolans? There's a dear. Glass of madeira, m'dear?

I was wondering what bunfight I'd missed and who the Queen of Huns was lol.

There's a woman lying outside in the arms of a labrador and trussed up in curtains. Anyone know who she is?

Aha! Welcome....

Why thankyou. I would have come sooner but it took me 3 years to find you and another 2 to follow you from Egypt (I think, I'm still grappling with the finer detail).

What a welldressed and convivial gathering.

Are there hamsters?

Aghhh! My fricassed chicken giblets a la sauce aux truffs is burning.....

Do not mention the hamsters! Gibbon will get upset.

Why Madame Casserole, we do so admire those with the stamina to do their research. Would you care for a tisane whilst Mimi does something with the burnt offerings?

There may well be some hamsters a little later. We are also going to have a display of manliness and a little eurythmy if dear Gibbon shows up as she is the one who is most adept with the scarves.

Ah, the human instrument, how wonderful. I shall await Gibbon's arrival with anticipation.

A tisane should be delightful. I am wearied from my journey.

Tell me, Madame, are you married? We are much occupied with questions of matrimony at The Hall. Well, apart from Ms Mary who has a beard and is obsessed with pamphlets. We have had many and different husbands but as we have journied across lands afar they seem to have fallen away somewhat.

Where has my daughter got to? Why, I don't believe we've seen her since Olympus? It is somewhat suspicious that James is also absent. What could they be plotting together? And where is Abercrombie?

I am still not certain of to whom I was married prior to our leaving Egypt.

I believe Molly took a job with a strapping young herbalist near Athens. I cannot account for James, although he has long been a tad maverick, and as for Abercrombie, I draw a blank entirely.

So many good fellows and companions..gone but not forgotten. I wonder if Mimi has checked the freezer yet?

No no, never married. There was a good gentleman, once upon a time, but alas, twas not to be for me. And yourself, Madame Hully? Surely there must be more fondness in your life than merely that supplied by dogs and curtains?

there are strange things in the freezer!

No, the mass wedding took place in great haste and confusion. And I was reluctant to tell you all, but I have received a missive from the pontiff informing me that the priest who conducted the ceremony was a blackguard, defrocked for penetrating the mysterious inner sanctums of the choir.

It appears ...that we are none of us married after all.

er, I mean in the ice house, ahem.

Hush Mimi, you will alarm the regiment. We shall have to attend to the ice house in due course.

Mme Casserole Alack I have been most sorely tried in the husband department. At first I loved Mr Rochester, but he betrayed me with the pirate tavern wench maverick, James. Then I met Capt Darcy Casuabon-Henchard, but he impregnated Gibbon and Tether and Paggy carried him about a bit defrosted in a trunk. Next came Mr Snow, but he was most lugubrious and I had to sever all ties. And then the gorgeous pouting and mute Abercrombie, large of heart and manly ways, but I seem to have misplaced him.

I stand before you a Maiden, with the last of my bloom upon me, in dire need and want of a husband.

Mimi, meet me at the ice house, we'll have to do something with the remains.

but of course, MmeHully, I am a great believer in recycling, and food foraging etc....

Pies for dinner tonight, methinks.

Mimi, have you seen young Nigel anywhere? I grow alarmed at his prolonged absence and dear Gibbon was most insistent that we keep a close eye on him while she attended the apothocary's?

I do hope he hasn't gone to hunt for hamsters in the attic?

I left a pile of bread and dripping sandwiches at the bottom of the attic staircase...He told me was going to build a telescope with wood chips and an abandoned monacle....

Pies! I love pies!

Especially fond of my signature pie, Hussars Delight...

I have fashioned some scarves from the left over muslin we took home with us.

Ahh I see we have been joined but another dear lady, welcome Miss Casserole.

Where did that dog come from?