Dr. Baxter accepts Lady Peach's invitation

Dear Sir Williard,

I am writing from my new temporary home, the estates of Lady Peach and her husband. I know this seems like a bold decision your Lordship, but I found the unexpected invitation to visit her and her family impossible to refuse. I hope you understand that it is the opportunity to meet and impress Lord Peach and perhaps other high placed officers of the Company that makes this invitation so tempting, not the opportunity to continue my illicit carnal liaison with Miss Peach. One or two of these gentlemen speaking on my behalf will guarantee me a position of real importance within the Byzantium labyrinth of favoritism and family connections that is the East Orion Trading Company.

As for the chance of ruining all the potential benefits of impressing these officers by taking liberties with the daughter of my host, I have resolved to speak privately to Miss Peach at the earliest opportunity and end any further inappropriate interaction with her. It is simply a matter of behaving in the manner expected of me as a gentleman and a medical professional; I anticipate that this pronouncement will come as a relief to Miss Peach who must surely be sharing my discomfort at the memory of her fall from grace. Since accepting the kind invitation to join the Peach family, I have had just enough time to close my accounts at the Edwardian and leave my forwarding information for the baggage that I hope will soon follow me from Kanda.

I also of course, sent a message to Dr. Miller politely thanking him for his note and explaining that I could not find a polite way to decline Lady Peach's insistent invitation. I concluded my note with a promise to contact him as soon as my visit their estate had come to an end. I was very close, Sir Williard, to accepting Dr. Miller's apology, and I still may have to turn to your acquaintance so I made every effort to keep that option open. I am very cognizant of the risk I am taking by rebuffing Dr. Miller's offer, a sanctioned position within the trading Company here in New Thames would provide me with a steady income and instant security. However in the end, the combination of the very grave reservations that I have with what goes on in Dr. Miller's clinic combined with the potential upside of meeting the the men with the real power on this planet simply outweigh the safety of abandoning my principles and placing myself under Dr. Miller's control.

I have been assigned to the now unused governess' suite for the length of my stay here at the family estate. It is a marvelous set of rooms on the third floor; a small library complete with a plush reading chair and writing desk at which I now sit. One door leads to a large sunlit teaching room with small desks and black slate that was close to ten feet in length that had been used for lessons and another to a comfortable bed chamber with slightly feminine decor but a very fine bed easily big enough for my six foot frame. Pardon the indelicacy of this note, but there was also a washroom with a mirrored vanity/sink combination, a large cast iron tub for bathing and a commode for bodily waste. The suite is located near the center of the structure between the servants wing and the family's private rooms, convenient to a central staircase. A Hindustani boy (a young man really, perhaps just into his twenties) has been assigned to assist me with unpacking and to help me change for dinner. I have sent him away for now to press my best shirt and dinner jacket and while I write this entry for your letter.

The ride from New Haven to the country estate, your Lordship, was made in the comfort of the family velocicarriage, a magnificent six-wheeled luxury model with superb suspension and quiet powerful motor. The carriage even had two separate compartments, I was directed into the forward compartment to sit with Hunter while the ladies remained in the plush aft compartment. The luxury of not having to share the compartment with the ladies made the three hour sojourn far more comfortable for all involved. Hunter and I were able to take off our jackets and neckties, share a brandy and talk as men in a way that would have been impossible had the ladies been present. Based on what I have discerned about the lack of modesty on Rajah-4, no doubt the gentlewomen in the aft compartment had loosened various parts of their wardrobes as well. I found the thought stimulating, so instead of thinking about the state of undress that those three lovely women might be in on the other side of the mahogany hatch, I concentrated on looking out the carriage window. The view however from the windows was disappointing as once we left New Haven all you could see was the blue-green foliage of the native foliage. So instead, as I did my best to ignore the hardness in my trousers, I listened to Hunter tell me of his latest adventures and answered - to the best of my ability - an endless series of questions about life on Earth.

My chatty compatriot gave me plenty of warning as we approached his familial estate and by the time the velocicarriage hummed to a stop outside the three story brick country mansion I had once again made myself presentable. The three ladies looked as elegant and fresh as when they first climbed into the carriage; if they had adjusted their clothing on the trip, like Hunter and myself they had returned to the standards of fashion by the time they disembarked. I must confess that I stared in amazement, Sir Williard at the size and extravagance of the Peach family home. The brick and timber structure was larger by half again than the largest estates in Britain or even in the Asian provinces, in addition to the main facade that stretched over two-hundred feet in length and forty or more feet high. I soon discovered that there were two additional wings hidden from sight behind the main building, one for the family and the other for the servants as well as several outbuildings. During an afternoon tour I saw greenhouses for the garden staff, stables for the families horses, a garage structure for the family's carriages and gyrocraft, and a boathouse on the river where they kept the family watercraft. I had thought your Chinese estate to be magnificent, Sir Williard, but compared to what I am told is only a middling estate holding here on Rajah-4 your family holdings look very modest.

I hope to have a chance to speak to Miss Peach in private after dinner. I must put her mind at ease regarding my intentions for her, I hate to think that she is worried that I might presume upon our previous indiscretion to pressure her once again into more of that kind of shameful behavior. As much as my baser instincts yearn to feel her squirming under my powerful thrusts, I know that I cannot indulge in this type of primitive immorality. It would be unconscionable for me to endanger both of our futures here in New India just to satisfy a momentary lust. On a more positive note, I think I may even have a way to rectify the great wrong which I have done to Miss Peach and I am eager to discus this possibility with her as well.