Whatever It Takes: Day 10

 Word Count: 60,120

Summary of Events:

Upon returning to Edinburgh from his weekend in Glasgow, Josiah decided to write Uncle Roderick so as to ensure Uncle Roderick would be available the following weekend to talk with him about his paternal relations, as Uncle Roderick was someone he was certain would know what the MacEacherns were like, seeing as he'd been alive when Josiah's parents had been courting; he also used the letter to explain the reason why he was only now expressing a curiosity about his paternal family . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Apparently a friend of Radcliff’s met and became quite enamoured with a Miss Ophelia MacEachern who lives in Glasgow with her family. Her family were reportedly very controlling, and she soon began to behave similarly, to the point that Radcliff’s friend had a great degree of difficulty extricating himself from the relationship when he came to find it undesirable.

Radcliff had been advising him to terminate the relationship much sooner than he had, and apparently harbours a significant grudge against people bearing the MacEachern name as a result, and is, thus, unsurprisingly, rather unfavourably disposed toward me.

He made his concerns known to Mr. Dunbar, which was why Mr. Dunbar came to call, and between having made an official face-to-face acquaintance with you — and having known much good about you so as to make that acquaintance a favourable one — and my responses to his enquiries, was assuaged that I am not at all like these Glaswegian MacEacherns.

Unfortunately conflicts of schedule have prevented him from being able to apprise his son of what he learned, thus Radcliff is still hostile toward me, and in the only real conversation I had with Radcliff, he questioned me about what I knew of my paternal relations, and all indications from his knowledge and my responses are that I and this Ophelia MacEachern — and her family — are related, thus Radcliff is certain that I will bring nothing but ill and harm to Evangelina.

Evangelina has no concerns toward me, nor does Mr. Dunbar, but I am troubled that Radcliff seems intent on judging me based on his experiences with other MacEacherns instead of hoping that I will be different, for the sake of his sister at the very least.

Considering the disfavour with which Radcliff regards me on account of the Glaswegian MacEacherns, I am curious to know if my paternal family is really a rotten family, or if they are decent persons, and since you would know something of them, having been alive when Mother and Father were courting, I would like to know if my father was, in fact, an odd good MacEachern, or if the Glaswegian MacEacherns are odd bad ones.

I do not expect you to respond to this letter in writing, but wanted to let you know of this so that we could speak of it on this coming week-end, as I do believe being able to have an in-person dialogue on the matter will be better than conversing by pen and page, I merely wanted to ensure that you were available to speak with me on the matter, and to apprise you of some of the reasons why I am seeking this information now, as opposed to having ever sought it before, so that we can get into the plain facts of who my paternal relations are when we are able to speak in person.