Breakfast+at+Little+Paddocks

Chapter 2: Breakfast at Little Paddocks
 * The scene opens at Little Paddocks while Miss Blacklock, the sixty year old owner, reads the //Daily Mail.//
 * Also at the table are Julia and Patrick Simmons. We don't yet know how they are related to Miss Blacklock.
 * Miss Dora Bunner, who is a bit crazy, runs up to Miss Blacklock in shock as she shows the murder announcement to Miss Blacklock.
 * Right off the bat, the blame is put on Patrick who quickly denies it even though he later admits to multiple past pranks.
 * Julia is questioned but she casually shrugs off the idea.
 * Miss Bunner questions if Mrs. Phillipa Haymes, who is absent at the moment, is playing a joke. We are not given much information about her but they doubt she would do this since "she's a serious girl, she is" (13). Not the best reason to let someone off the hook, but let's go with it for now.
 * Miss Blacklock claims it to be "some silly sort of hoax" (13).
 * Miss Bunner continues to worry, you'll notice she often does. Miss Blacklock reassures her telling her to not "work yourself up over it" (13).
 * She then asks what will happen at this time
 * Patrick responds with "Death!" (13). He jokingly explains that he only means "Delicious Death," as in "the special cake Mitzi makes" (14).
 * But could Patrick's remark be a little bit of foreshadowing as to what will actually happen at 6:30?... Hmmm...
 * To answer Miss Bunner's question, Miss Blacklock calmly states, "I know one thing that will happen at 6:30. . . We'll have half the village up here, agog with curiosity. I'd better make sure we've got some sherry in the house" (14).
 * Later, Miss Bunner again checks up on Miss Blacklock to see if she changed her mind about the "being nervous" thing.
 * At this point, we are given a little more information on Dora:
 * Dora and Miss Blacklock (Letty) were school friends, Letty remembers Dora as being "a pretty fair-haired, blue-eyed, rather stupid girl" (14). Wow, that's... nice?
 * She was never good at anything and could not earn a living on her own.
 * Her health was declining and she needed a place to stay.
 * Dora let her stay and gave her the job of the housework claiming it "is getting too much for me" (15).
 * Letty once again claims she is not nervous.
 * Dora considers this whole situation a spiteful joke.
 * Mitzi, the house's "lady help" from some European country, enters (16).
 * Mitzi says she wishes to leave. She doesn't want to die like her relatives, and being the overly dramatic woman she is, after reading the announcement she is convinced that either the Nazis or the Bolsheviks want to kill her.
 * Miss Blacklock reassures her and convinces her to stay.

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