Hi, Princess, sorry not to get back to you on Marie of Romania sooner.
I feel exactly the same way, I learn so much here, and I am grateful. It's one reason I resist abuse here of the charge of derailment. There are whole longstanding massive threads here of what anybody would call derailment according to Tattle rules, but we do not, because we like the people talking about it and learn a thing or two. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
The Marie thing I picked up from an ancient Dorothy Parker quip:
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
a medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
and I am Marie of Romania.
As for Grant, the peculiarly hurricane-like exchange of visible black cloud energy when Pheeph offered him a glass of rosé in the courtyard and he declined, made me think something was seriously up then.
Not saying it's mufki pufki with the charletaine.
But what else would bring Grant to Lalande so faithfully when no other kind of assistance he provides is needed? And heterosexual alpha male assistance is so rare a pearl in those latitudes?