FWIW: there's a great scene in the 1968 storyline (I think from some point in the Vampilique era) where Stokes and Julia are sitting at the chessboard in the drawing room and she asks for his help and he deftly, quietly, and definitively tells her off for all the times she's asked for his help, promised to explain, and NEVER followed through. Great scene, and deeply satisfying on a certain level for the audience.
"Watering the monkshood"?? Rainey, I'm dying here!
G.