Always and Forever, chapter 2

In this chapter, we hear about Oliver's house in London. It's a narrow Regency house, complete with a servant (Bates) and a black Labrador (Tiger). We also hear that he's been in the company of Miriam Potter-Stokes lately, one of those elegant and well-dressed women who often throw themselves at Betts heroes. She's well-dressed, but Oliver isn't very enthusiastic about spending time with her - Miriam clearly likes him more than he likes her. Odds are that Miriam and Amabel will meet in later chapters, and that Miriam will be condescending, and that I'll enjoy reading all about it. Anyway, seeing Miriam reminds Oliver of Amabel - possibly "because the difference in the two of them was so marked" (p. 40). So he visits Amabel, finds her having a good cry about her mother's new marriage, and is very comforting - he even takes her out to dinner.
Amabel has been looking for jobs in the newspaper. She writes to her mother about the splendid apple crop, and about all the fruit she has harvested. She actually does quite a lot of gardening in the weeks before her mother's return. They have a large garden plot, an orchard, and an old greenhouse. Sadly, once Keith (Amabel's stepfather) arrives, there goes the orchard - on the first day of his arrival, he announces his intentions of taking out all the trees and putting a new greenhouse there. Keith assumes that Amabel will stick around and do the lighter gardening, even though he doesn't like her and even declares that "I'm the boss here" (because Amabel's mother is a doormat). After Amabel finds him mistreating the animals she takes some money (with her mother's permission) and runs away with the pets to her great-aunt Thisbe in Yorkshire. Her aunt is very welcoming, saying, "Welcome to my home, child. And yours for as long as you need it." (p. 59)