Greetings Middlemarchers! It's a pleasure to reconvene with all of you. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to our discussions on Eliot's latest revelations.

• Dorothea, in her new status as a widow, returns to Lowick, with a resolution to put her inherited fortune to good use.
• Dorothea commissions Caleb to oversee the Lowick estate, who in turn offers Fred an opportunity as a budding apprentice.
• Meanwhile, Lydgate and Rosamund are grappling with mounting debts, as Rosamund's spending surpasses Lydgate's income. In an attempt to win over Lydgate’s affluent cousin during a horse ride, Rosamund faces a tragic miscarriage and subsequently seeks solace with Will. This prompts Lydgate to observe a growing distance between him and Rosamund.
• In this installment, we delve deeper into Bulstrode's past, discovering his ties to a pawnshop dealing in dubious items and his cunning maneuver to secure an inheritance, bypassing Will’s mother by wedding her mother. He later attempts to compensate Will financially, but Will declines.
• Rosamund's playful hint about the codicil in Casaubon’s will infuriates Will. In a twist of events, during an auction, the enigmatic Raffles approaches him, questioning his lineage and revealing unsavory details about his mother's family. Concerned that Dorothea might uncover this, Will contemplates departing. He nearly confesses his feelings for Dorothea but departs without doing so.

And that wraps up 'The Widow and the Wife'! Keen to hear your thoughts. I'll drop some discussion starters in the comments, but also use this space to reconnect. If you're ahead in your reading, please be wary of spoilers. Join us next week as we dive into the next-to-last book, 'Two Temptations'.