Mind? My goodness, she was thrilled. A real-life British lord at her drinks party. He would understand the concept of drinks and mixed nuts only. She had wanted to keep it tight—time-wise and money-wise. Plus, she could show him which properties in the neighborhood the British had burned to the ground during the Revolution. How exciting! “Of course not. We’re delighted to have Penny’s godfather,” she said with a wink. Could he be Penny’s real father?

“Mom, please, please, don’t make a big deal of this.”

“Of course not. It’s our secret. But I am looking forward to meeting Lord Simon Fox. Do you know who else will want to meet him? My special guest, Bernadette Caruso. She was my roommate at Ethel Walker. Then I went to Bryn Mawr and she went on to Barnard and Columbia J school and then the Times, of course. Now she’s the Aunt B, the wedding guru. Her coverage of society weddings is sublime. She’s old school when it comes to weddings, but new school when it comes to media. Aunt B is going to be at the party. Do you know who she is?”

“Yes, Mom. You’ve mentioned her a million times. And every woman I know has quoted Aunt B about something since we started telling our friends we’re engaged. It’s like they memorize her columns,” Chase said with a mix of admiration and bemusement. “Will she be there in a professional capacity? Is she covering the engagement party?”

“I don’t know exactly. I think she’s thinking about covering the wedding, so she’s surveilling the party to make sure it’s up to her standards. At least she still has standards, not like the New York Times, which doesn’t even print the names of the parents and grandparents in the ‘Vows’ section anymore. Who are these people getting married in a barn? We don’t know.”

“Mom, please don’t say stuff like that out loud this weekend.” Chase laughed.

“You know I won’t. I just miss the old days when lineage mattered. But Bernadette does live right up the coast in Niantic. A Fair Harbor wedding would be an easy trip for her.”

There was a substantial pause on the other end of the phone. Chase was making calculations, which was literally his job. Every day, he maneuvered the mayor of New York to this meeting or that meeting. One interview over another. To lunch with this donor instead of coffee with that advocacy group. Every minute was a considered choice, and now his mother was offering up an unexpected option of her own: coverage. He decided to tread carefully. No reason to put his foot down just yet. “Remember, Mom, this is Penny’s wedding. And she wants to make it significant for her and her mom, so that may mean California.”