“Damn.” Sophia hated to give Talia’s comment about underestimating this woman any credence, but she hadn’t seen the one-dead-dad-away-from-losing-it-all angle coming.

“That’s the aristocracy for you.”

“It’s sexism for you,” Sophia shot back. “Look, I can’t believe I of all people am about to get irate about inheritance laws, but what the actual hell? It’s not like you’re living in ancient times. No matter what enragingly nepotistic class system you’re working under, the rules should at least be the same for men and women.”

Vic shrugged. “We’ve had female monarchs and prime ministers. We have plenty of non-discrimination laws in business and schools.”

“So why can’t you fight for the same thing with the titles?”

“There was a push some years ago to start making major changes, but it keeps stalling in Parliament, and then the session ends and everything must be completely restarted over and over again.” Victoria swallowed another solid sip of her drink. “Maybe eventually new laws will get passed, but obviously there aren’t a ton of people in my position, so I can’t imagine Parliament will feel a sense of urgency until some high-profile case slaps them in the face.”

“Holy crap, that could be you.” Sophia started to feel excited about the prospect. “You could, like, bring some landmark lawsuit. You could set a precedent and change this for every woman who comes after you.”

“Once upon a time, maybe.” Vic shook her head as a flash of sadness shadowed her features. Then she sat up a little straighter and forced her expression back to neutral. “Anyway, you didn’t break into a castle to talk about lines of peerage and titles.”

“You don’t know what I broke in here for.”

“True.” Victoria crossed one leg over the other, angling toward Sophia in a graceful way that effortlessly indicated interest. “Care to tell me?”

“Oh, that was smooth!” Sophia raised her glass in a salute. “You know, I often try to pull off that move.”

“Move?” Vic played innocent, but Sophia didn’t buy it.

“The subtle shift to signal enough-talking-about-this-thing-I-don’t-want-to-talk-about by making it seem like you’re way more interested in the other person.”

“I did no such thing, and I’m genuinely more interested in you.”

“Well, I’m more interested in you.”

Vic’s cheeks flushed a slight shade of pink. “You’ve already heard the most interesting bit about me, and incidentally it has virtually nothing to do with who I am as a person. It’s a fact of my birth, a genetic lottery of sorts.”

“No.” Sophia waved her off. “I’m interested in hearing about this ‘once upon a time’ you mentioned before changing the subject.”

“Oh, you caught that?” Victoria gave a little grimace that managed to make her look sheepish, which seemed both discordant and adorable on a woman who spoke about the aristocracy in completely neutral tones.