there where no a/c to heat the castle unless they used fire to get worm.
Since we learn that the aunt has a soft heart, I will say that 'this is an example of indirect characterization', because we learn of her characteristics in an indirect way, that is, we are not directly told that she has a soft heart, we can infer that information from this passage.
Antonym for earlier:later, or next.
A example of a fused sentence is: Heather read the novel her friend watched the movie