REMI'S POV
Isolde was eight months old when she produced the single most effective social maneuver I had ever witnessed, and she did it at Eleanor's Sunday dinner table without any apparent awareness that it was remarkable.
The context: the full estate gathering. Eleanor at the head, Margaret two seats down, several Wolfe relatives whose names I was still learning, two pack elders who had been attending Eleanor's Sundays for thirty years. Vera, who was the elder whose verdict I had learned to watch for. The table was the long one. The occasion was unstated but understood: celebratory. Eleanor had said we are in the celebration portion now and the household had adjusted accordingly.
Isolde had done her arrival survey — a full circuit of the room in the carrier, assessing each person — an
