"I don't think a book about courting would be the most useful to frontload. At this point I would be pretty surprised if there were any languages I couldn't read."

Lucette can direct Annie to 'Of those to the North who fail to listen', which is shelved next to a book on frog anatomy.

Wow, that is an impressive classification system.

Annie will park in the library. Even if Lucette goes somewhere else, as long as she's not too far to sense.

Lucette can write her letter in the library while Annie reads.

What's in this book, then.

A lot of complaints about how the English treat commoners - and in particular of the fact that their legal system nearly ignores crimes committed by nobility against commoners. In particular, the author objects to the presence of cultural traditions of empowered nobles robbing, harassing, and sometimes killing commoners during their annual courting season. The few nobles who are caught at this are remanded to a jail which lacks locks on half the cells and a warden who has received quite an extensive list of expensive presents which he was all too eager to brag to the author of the book about.

The author also feels that the nobles are derelict in their duties of defending against most wild demons, but will admit that their campaigns have killed more than most countries have managed, both in terms of demons and the empowered.

Also, they refuse to do arranged marriages for their empowered, even when the parents involved are honorable. The author objects to this and thinks the young English men spend far too much time thinking of the, ahem, physical aspects of matrimony, which should rightly be ignored until after marriage. 

Wow. She hates it. (How is arranged marriage supposed to help with Englishmen thinking too much of the physical aspects of matrimony, anyway.)

The idea is that their fathers will prioritize more sensible things in making the match.

Uh-huh.

She'll go to bed whenever Lucette does whether she's finished the book or not.

The response to Lucette's letter comes later the next day - a surgeon friend of her father's has a patient willing to try just about anything that might help with an upcoming amputation.

Does the letter say why the amputation is occurring?

The man was bitten on the arm by a dog and the wound became infected.

Where does she go to tap the guy and how does she get there?

There is a carriage which will ostensibly be taking them to visit a florist who lives a block away.

...if that's necessary, okay.

"Unfortunately, yes - even going without an escort following us into the florist's shop is a privilege I am lucky to have." She doesn't seem especially enthused about this.

"An escort? Who would be escorting you if you were less privileged in this way?"

"A married woman or male relative."

"Sounds inconvenient to need to source one every time you want to go on an errand."

"Noble ladies don't normally need to go on errands."

"Isn't it tedious to have to describe in advance exactly what - if you were going to the florist - flowers you want, and what to get if they don't have those, to someone who goes in your place? You don't get to browse, that way. I, uh, will probably never really appreciate a flower again, and was not actually much of a flower-buyer before either, but I think a lot of the appeal would be in the browsing."

"Yes, most unmarried noble women would need an escort if they wished to browse - it's not a tradition I find myself fond of."

"Well. Fortunately we are - privileged."

"Fortunately."

The surgery is apparently set to take place in someone's living room - the surgeons still unpacking once they get there, next to his terrified patient with a swollen arm.