It’s always difficult to get to the truth at times. This can be especially true when people ‘fall out’, or feel they have been insulted, or that people have taken advantage of them. Thus it was some time before I discovered the real nature of the exile of Mistress Jena.

Mistress Jena was an attractive young woman. Not a beauty, but blessed with good bones, a cheerful nature and an active disposition. All of which conspired together to produce a lady who was tall, slender, and quite pretty.

Her father died when she was in her early twenties, and not long after that her mother returned to Prae Ducis to act as nurse and housekeeper for her ailing brother. Jena was left in Port Naain and thanks to her mother’s decision; Jena could at least aspire to genteel poverty.

She was lucky in that Madame Weldonnan approved of her, which…