Miss Valentin Kern's parents were over forty when, on a sudden whim, they abandoned their modest family estate and went to Greece to grow the lotus fruit from the Odyssey that makes people forget their troubles.
Before leaving, they arranged a marriage for her.
Her fiancé was a minor civil servant in London.
She sent him a photograph, and he was so pleased with her that he grew suspicious.
First, he wondered whether there were any strange men around her. Then he overstepped and started asking about her parents and their estate.
Unable to bear it any longer, Valentin went to London to end the engagement.
Only after reaching the munitions factory where her fiancé worked did she discover that six months earlier, he had been sentenced to hang for murder and treason.
Valentin: Why had nobody told her about something this important?
...Wait, then who had been writing to her all these months?
A heavily altered take on The Greek Interpreter and The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.
Everything except Valentin Kern is undecided.
*2025.5.3
Theme: Facing the weaknesses of human nature head-on
