On a summer's evening like this, it was almost a pleasure to mow the grass before our evening meal.I trundled the barrow through the gap in the yew he...ge and into the vegetable garden. Laura had insisted on planting an evergreen hedge between the 'entertaining' and 'productive' parts of our garden; I hadn't objected because the slightly warmer microclimate within the shelter of the hedge meant that the growing season was extended by a week or more. It had more than repaid the work involved.The. “Doesn’t work on deadbolts, but most knob locks are a cinch. If the door’s loose, it takes less time than using a key.”“And you learned this why?” she asked.“I read about it in a book and decided to see if it worked or it was junk information. It took me a little time, but I got the hang of it. It’s come in handy a couple of times when I forgot my key and came home while Mom was out shopping and it was really handy today, clearly.” I looked at my watch and it was almost 2. “I could use a hand. It was appropriate since that was the state of her mind.She didn’t like what was to come – she was fine with Audette becoming the Empress-an, just not why it was being done so quickly – but the Great Hall was prepared for it.It had taken longer than Radu had thought. She chuckled wryly that Radu had believed he could just declare Audette to have reached her majority and declare her the Empress-an in less than a day. Pushing her majority day forward had been relatively easy – well, not extremely. The pilots are already in there filling out their employment packages. I asked her to give an employment package to Barbie. Have her and her mother join the flight crew and complete their packages.Barbie introduced her mother, “This is Georgina, but she goes by Gina.”I suggested to Barbie and Gina, “When your packages are complete, bring them to Naomi’s office and we will explain the job Gina is applying for. You and Barbie can talk more on the plane.”I told Naomi, “It looks like we are not.