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“Augusta, Father gave Miss Heywood flowers at the picnic yesterday. Do you think he loves her?”
“What? Why do you think that?” replied Augusta. They were enjoying another picnic, but this time, by themselves.
“Well,” Leo sat on her knees, leaning forward. She considered her argument carefully. “He has never given anyone flowers before, not even us, and come to think of it, he has never joined us on a picnic with us before she came.”
Augusta was quiet for what seemed like a long time to Leo. Finally, she said, “I don’t know. I have never really thought about Uncle caring about anyone else, since he avoids our company so much, but he did seem to enjoy her company yesterday, and they do seem to have some common interests. Maybe, with our help, they will fall in love with each other.”
“What can we do, Augusta? I would love for Miss Heywood to be my mother!” Leo jumped up and started bouncing around.
“Leo”, Augusta warned. “This needs to be a top-secret mission. Your father and Miss Heywood cannot know what we are doing. It would spoil the mission, and they might not fall in love.”
“We could tell Miss Heywood of all the ways Father would be a good husband, and we could tell Father of all the ways that Miss Heywood would be a good mother!” Leo replied. “Maybe we could get Father to give Miss Heywood more cornflowers. She seemed to like that, and they are her favorite. Maybe, WE could give her the cornflowers and say that they are from Father!”
“Oh Leo, I think we need to be more subtle than that. No one wants to be told who they should fall in love with.” Augusta said with a great deal of authority.
Leo sat back down with a huff and began to pout. She folded her arms in front of her chest. “Why not? I would want to know.”
Augusta rolled her eyes. “Because falling in love is a beastly business. And honestly, I think they both need to be convinced that they even want to fall in love. Certainly, Uncle does. He rarely leaves home, and we have never seen him even talk to a lady, except Mrs. Wheatly and now Miss Heywood. What we need is a plan. A secret plan.” Augusta laid back on the rug and closed her eyes to avoid squinting in the sunshine.
“Alright, Augusta. A plan. Let us make one, but it must involve cornflowers!” Leo grinned, jumped up, and ran to pick some cornflowers.