Sentence The Eighteenth

Quickly changing into Afternoon Tea Wear, the friends made their way through the gardens and up to a select little tea-shop with a secluded secret courtyard, where they settled themselves with a degree of hauteur not particularly natural to them, but appropriate to their surroundings, to enjoy one of the most important of Edinburgh

 Rituals – High Tea; with the tinkle of cutlery on china and the gentle murmur of voices, mingling with the sweet chirrups of blue-tits and goldfinches, and Daphne began to explain what had happened, so very long ago: as they all knew, Sister Evadne Eglantine was a nun, in the order of The Poor Little Sisters of The Cross of the Wayfarer (claiming as its founder Mary Magdalene of the Gospels) and she spent much of her life in The Cowgate – then a principle thoroughfare running between The Grassmarket and Holy Rude, at the foot of Arthur's Seat; renowned as a healer among the poor and outcast, she was also sought out by the higher classes for they saw in her one who was both diligently earnest in assuaging sickness and injury, and also discreet, reserving her words for the Confessional (though, in truth, she could hardly have any sins to confess, other than that of Pride, for she took great pleasure in the efficacy of her salves and potions and their ability to cleanse and mend wounds and eruptions of the flesh; Sister Evadne 's name became known beyond the confines of the Old Town (there was at that time, of course, no New Town, the origins of which lay far in the future); but to the tale: among those who heard the name of Sister Evadne and her medical skills mentioned reverently was Griselda of Longformacus, who all will remember was eldest daughter of Muckle-Heid Menstrie, and betrothed to Angus MacAngus, the brave and dauntless son of Angus MacIan – Leigh raised a hand and asked if it was her daughter who became Queen Clotilda on her marriage into the Swabian Royal Family, which Daphne acknowledged as verifiable fact, and added that her other daughter was grandmother of Queen Margaret and that through these two daughters were descended people of great distinction and credit, right down to the present day; at which point Roxy raised her hand and asked if one of them was the present Monarch and her children and grandchildren, which Daphne acknowledged was also correct; and Ginger then asked if the first daughter was not a lineal ancestor of her Party's previous leader, her immediate predecessor, and Daphne once again acknowledged this; and then she paused (and as the pause lengthened, the eyes of the young cousins began to roam, from Daphne's face to that of Maude, and thence to each other, and still there was silence, until Maude coughed and suggested that perhaps Daphne should let them into the secret; three pairs of eyes fixed themselves on Daphne and she cleared her throat: “although my researches into Sister Evadne were prompted more from a personal interest in the genealogy of our own families – being rather later than my professional sphere – they did bring me into contact with certain other personages contemporaneous with her, and one of these was Sir Parlane MacFarlane; and when I put certain written evidences together (and written in the hand of Sister Evadne herself, in blood and urine on her wimple and scratched into the walls of her dungeon cell) in keeping with the guidance 'softly, softly, catchee monkey' I believe I can state two facts right here, right now – and these are that our present Monarch and her family, heirs to the Throne included, and Mr Hamish Saloman, erstwhile Leader of your Party, dear Ginger, are both direct descendants of the most foul-minded, debauched, villainous, treacherous, nefarious defenestrator of more than one innocent soul plunged from a topmost window of Edinburgh Castle to the depths of the Nor' Loch below and the most evil man whose long shadow spreads like blood over the history of Scotland, and that is Sir Parlane MacFarlane – there is no doubt, it is not interpretation, it is Fact!”