Of the many things Elladora found quite acceptable about her lot in life, having the luxury of breakfasting alone was amongst them. It wasn’t every morning of course – when Phineas returned she was only too glad to share his company as he was quite fine compnay – but with him at Hogwarts, Sirius and the baby in the nursery and Ursula taking advantage of her married status to eat in bed Ella enjoyed blissful, uninterrupted silence whilst she are her porridge. It was an indulgence of sorts, albeit a simple one, and it was one she craved each morning more and more with each passing week of her life.

Today, sadly, was not a day that seemed to be interested in her getting her quiet time.

At least this morning she had made it past breakfast before Ursula’s latest crisis. Last time her sister-in-law had looked quite so distressed she had ended up with what could only be described as the soup of Ursula’s innards on her shoes so this morning intrusion could only possibly go better and she wasn’t entirely opposed to seeing the other woman, especially seeing her now she wasn’t quite so rotund and mysterious to Elladora’s sensibilities. She understood the mechanisms of birth of course, but to see even some of it up close had been quite enough for her and confirmed to Ella that she had chosen her course of life wisely.

“I dread to think dear,” she sipped her tea delicately and placed it on the side-table as she settled back in her seat by the window overlooking the gardens. The other side had the misfortune of looking over the street and though it was a superior street, a street was still a street and the garden was better. Of course the last time she had been in a garden with Ursula… she tucked her feet underneath the chair.

“Would you like some tea while you explain?”

It took Ella longer than she would have liked to admit for her to realise what on earth Ursula was babbling about and when she did realise she immediately stifled her smirk by sipping her tea for a prolonged period of time, making a show of dabbing at the corner of her lips with her napkin until she was sure there was no trace of amusement on her features. It wasn’t that Ursula asking was intrinsically funny – indeed the humour was rather easily quashed when she considered quite why her sister-in-law might be asking – but the clear awkwardness Ursula was feeling at having to ask her.

Ella would have almost taken pity on her sister-in-law if she didn’t know the suppression of such urges was hardly likely to be in response to Phineas’ presence.

“Resist?” She raised an eyebrow. “My dear I fail to understand you. I take small pleasures where I can in the form of visiting friends and indulging my hobbies but surely anyone with any sense of decency would never have the need to resist anything untowards.”

She placed her teacup down and turned her gaze more directly upon Ursula, her mouth setting into a harder line.

“What is it you wish to avoid?”

Her suspicions confirmed – well, some of them at least – Ella began to enjoy herself quite a bit of the expense of her sister-in-law’s embarrassment. She had never felt the overwhelming need for another, at least not in the last ten years and even in her youth the odd moment of longing had been fleeting and easily dealt with.

Ursula, as Ursula always seemed to be, was a different matter and Ella sighed as she placed her tea cup down decisively. She dearly hoped that her sister-in-law was speaking of Phineas knowing, as she did, that it had not always been so. Ursula certainly seemed perturbed over something at the moment though and Ella, despite her own better judgment, decided that for the moment it was best to take Ursula’s meaning at face value.

And then keep an eye on her to see what she did next.

“I take it the situation is serious enough that you cannot wait until he is able to return to us?”

It was only a matter of six weeks after all and Ella could scarcely imagine being so desperate for such company that one could not even wait till then! It spoke of a level of indulgence of pleasures of the flesh that she had never understood.

“May I suggest some kind of occupation to fill up your time and tired you out? I would suggest charity work but such exposure to others may only make the matter worse – have you considered embroidery?”

Although on second thoughts the rhythmic motion was somewhat unseemly in context…

“Or reading?”

Ella leveled her gaze steadily on the other woman as she sipped her tea casually, having no intention of giving away the true secret to her lifetime of control to Ursula, but quite why her sister-in-law was so desperate to hear it when she had never troubled herself with control before was intriguing. Ursula's inability to keep herself under control had been a problem in the past - if it was resurfacing as one then it was certainly something she needed to worry about. Of course she couldn't just ask Ursula, if she was wrong and it got back to Phineas that she had doubted his wife it would be her that seemed at fault and she could never have that!

“I have no secret dear, simply a lifetime of common sense to help me along.”

The fact that, to Ella’s recollection, she had never truly desired anyone’s company but her own probably didn’t hurt her ability to remain abstinent of course, but that was hardly something she was going to share!

“Of course if you’d like to talk about it I’d be quite amenable…? And I believe there are potions one can take to help.”

Momentarily overwhelmed by the more callous nature of her notorious lineage Ella considered how gullible and desperate Ursula might actually be and the variety of potions, both experimental and intentionally vile that she could feed her philandering sister-in-law before the other woman became suspicious. Because though she was not certain in her convictions the nature of Ursula’s questioning – and the fact that the other woman had never asked her such things before – made her question the fidelity she had believed Ursula to be practicing lately.

“Well,” she said slowly her eyes glinting. “I doubt they’d be especially pleasant and I imagine they could spoil the enjoyment of your marital bed in the long run,” she smirked to herself as she took a sip of her tea. “And I would hardly think it wise to condemn you to that and I doubt Phineas would thank me for rendering his wife unfeeling.”

Oh Merlin, she wished there were. She was generally perplexed by her sister-in-law, and had been more or less since Phineas had taken Ursula as a bride but the thing that usually bothered Ella most of all wasn't so much Ursula's occasional lapse of moral decency. No, instead it was that the younger woman clearly thought she was stupid.

"I don't know dear, I've never had cause to take them," she said sniffily as she sipped her tea. "I've heard of illness and bleeding though-"

No, that was no good. Ursula was ludicrous enough that she might still do it to herself for whatever the reason was, and Ella was increasingly gathering suspicions that this had nothing to do with Phineas at all.

"And one becomes with child very easily I'd assume."