They scrambled into their seats.

“Where is Elisabeth?” Edwina asked.

“Not feeling too well today, Mama. Nanny is having a tray sent up to her room.”

“She needs to get outside more, Irene. You can’t mollycoddle her like this. Good, fresh air every day.”

Huxstep, the butler, appeared behind the dowager duchess. “Should I have the soup brought in, Your Grace? Will His Grace and friends be joining you?”

“I have no idea, Huxstep,” she said. “My son does not consult me in his comings and goings. So yes, please do go ahead and have the soup served. If they come now, they will just have to miss the first course.”

Tureens were brought in by two footmen, and a clear consommé was ladled into the Royal Doulton bowl in front of me. I sensed Irene looking at me with interest and I nodded a smile.

“How do you do,” I said. I was about to introduce myself when the dowager duchess said, “Irene, Nicholas, Katherine—you haven’t met our guest. Georgiana Rannoch—her grandmother was very kind to me when I was a young lady-in-waiting to the old queen. I’ve invited her to stay for a while.”

“We already met her outside,” Nicholas said, as if scoring a point.

“Really, Mama, you’re wasting your time, you know,” Irene said.

“What on earth do you mean?”

“If you’re thinking of her as a potential bride for Cedric, there is no chance.”

“I assure you I have no interest in becoming Duchess of Eynsford,” I said. “My taste in men is very different.”

“I agree with you, my dear,” Virginia said. “Why would one want to look twice at an unattractive man when there are so many handsome ones in the world?”

“When I was young, we married out of duty,” Edwina said. “We were told whom we should marry and we did so. “

“I married Orlovski for love,” Charlotte said.

“Nonsense. You liked the idea of being a princess.” Virginia chuckled.

“How did you meet a Russian prince, Your Highness?” I asked.

“Our father was ambassador at the court of the Hapsburgs,” Edwina answered for her. “The prince was visiting and was taken with my sister.”

“I was considered a great beauty at the time,” Charlotte said.

“The fact that Father had arranged a generous dowry for each of us didn’t hurt either,” Virginia added.

“Sit up, Nicholas, and don’t slurp your soup,” Edwina interrupted sharply. “Really, you children still eat like savages.”

“He gets nervous in your presence, Mama,” Irene said. “Most children of his age take their meals in the nursery.”

“I’ve always thought it was important for children to learn civilized manners and the art of conversation well before they are taken out in society. Since yours have apparently learned nothing before they came here, I am taking them in hand.”

“That’s really not fair, Mama.” Irene’s face had turned red. “They’ve had to suffer very upsetting things in their young lives. We’ve all had to suffer.”

“Nonsense. You should talk to Billings, the estate manager, about his son, who came home from the war so shell-shocked that he still cries like a baby every night. Or the gamekeeper’s son who lost both legs. Or that family in the village who lost all three sons on the same day. That is suffering, Irene. Not going without a new hat every season.”