Belinda chuckled. “You are so delightfully old-fashioned in your wording, my sweet. There are useful things called French letters and Dutch caps, you know. And if I were to get preggers, there is a wonderful little clinic on the coast near Bournemouth, and I’m sure the man in question would cough up the necessary funds to do the trick.” The smile faded. “Don’t look so horrified, darling. It’s done all the time. Of course it’s easier for married women—no need for clinics as long as the baby looks something like the official father. Accept the fact, Georgie—bed hopping is a major sport for our class. It whiles away the long hours between hunting, shooting and fishing.” And she laughed again.

“Do you ever think you’ll get married?” I asked.

“If I find someone rich and boring enough, and preferably old, and shortsighted.” She reached up and put her hands on my cheeks. “I enjoy it, darling. I love the thrill of the chase. I can’t picture myself ever tied down to one man.”

“You and my mother must come from another planet,” I said. “Settling down with one man sounds awfully nice to me.”

“The problem is with whom, darling,” Belinda said, dropping back to her pillows with a sigh. “Your beloved Darcy doesn’t have the means nor the temperament for domestic bliss. In fact I see him turning into one of these enigmatic men who flit around the globe, living by their wits into old age.”

I sighed. “You may be right. I wish I hadn’t fallen for him, but I have. Everyone is pushing me to marry sensibly—I could probably even have someone like Anton if I wanted. But I don’t want. And I certainly don’t want to live in a part of the world where I could be assassinated any day.”

“Don’t be silly, darling. I’m sure Anton and his family are quite safe. Who’d want to kill them?”

I realized then that she didn’t know anything. I got to my feet, before I spilled any beans. “Belinda, what I actually came for was to beg a favor. My maid Queenie has managed to put a huge scorch mark in my good evening dress. I can’t keep wearing the same thing at dinner every night so I wondered if I could possibly wear one of yours.”

“That maid of yours is a total disaster,” Belinda said. “What will she do next? Give you third-degree burns when she spills your morning tea all over you? It’s too bad we’re snowed in or you could send her home on the next train.”

“She’d never make it across Europe alone,” I said, laughing in spite of everything. “She’d wind up in Constantinople and find herself in a harem. I gather big, chubby women are the thing over there.”