Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's Monday tea sits untouched, for today brings word of telephone diplomacies between two most powerful lords over a waterway that may yet determine the price of your supper, a desperate plea from a prison cell in a war zone, and the revelation that a simple family luncheon now costs more than a gentleman's wager at cards. All this, and a quarrel about moles that has set the nation quite ablaze.

Dearest Gentle Reader, This Author's column today concerns hidden fortunes, blank pages that set Westminster ablaze, and a stable door shut far too late to matter. One might think the Season's intrigues could not grow more delicious - one would be gravely mistaken. Do click through before someone less discreet reveals what you have missed.