"Sorry-- I meant of course, that Di must have died on the Friday before Advent began, because we only got the news of her death on the first day of Advent!" Matthew looked close to tears again, at that memory... until, that was, Stephen began to urge him to subvert the regime on a small, individual scale! "Stephen, honestly, I have no cunning left in me. My mind is all..."
Numbers and translations, he was going to say, before the noise upstairs. "...Oh, yes. Sorry, didn't I mention my father before? This house is still his own -- though really, I don't think it shall be long before I'm stuck inheriting it...! That was probably his nurse, though-- my aunt Kinjala, in fact! I mean, father's too weak to get out of bed anymore... It's-- his heart, you see... It's grown even weaker since-- since, well, Di's death!"
He considered what he'd just heard and said, with a mournfully pensive expression on his fac4e. "...Actually, that might have been my father, falling out of bed...! He does try to get up sometimes..."