“And that is absolutely exactly why we do everything we do,” Nick said. “To make your life easier.” He set down his glass. “Perhaps that’s why Father has been leaning on me so much lately. He must be thankful for me.”

“Or perhaps you’re making up for all those lost weeks,” Freddie said. “There were so very many of them.”

“And why was that, do you think?” Nick asked, fixing him with a stare. Next to him, Olly was chewing on his thumbnail. “Remind me.”

“We should be going,” Lacey said. “We’ve got to head back to Cambridge before the food coma sets in.”

Freddie made a move to get up. “No,” I said resolutely. “You are staying here.”

I started to follow Olly and Lacey across the room. “Go back in there, B,” Lacey said. “There’s your opening.”

“I know, but…” I stopped in the foyer. “I need to apologize. This is not how I wanted tonight to go.”

Olly adjusted his glasses. “Do you know how elephants pick their matriarch?” he asked. “Simplistically, it’s because she displays courage in crisis and can navigate the terrain and the social politics.” He smiled sympathetically. “If you’re half as tough as Lacey is, then you’ve got this, and they’re lucky to have you.”

“Olly,” Lacey said lovingly. “Only you would find an elephant analogy here.”

He grinned sweetly. “Beats an ‘elephant in the room’ pun.”

I watched the door click behind them, then took a bracing breath before walking back into the living room. Nick and Freddie were, like boxers on a break, in opposite corners staring at different objets d’art from Georgina’s collection. One of them was a nude that did absolutely nothing to make this less uncomfortable.

“I kept wanting to make you two talk out whatever this is, and then convincing myself that things were improving, or that it wasn’t the right time,” I said. “But I was deluding myself on both counts, so here we are. You two are sniping at each other constantly, and it’s got to stop. So. How do we stop it?”

Nick tapped on his forearm and stared out the window. Freddie fixated on an enamel box with a rooster on it.

“Really?” I said. “Neither of you has anything to contribute?”

“We’re being scolded, Knickers,” Freddie said, aiming for lightness.

“Yeah, and I resent having to do it,” I said. “But you’ve been acting like children. If you guys aren’t motivated enough to fix this yourselves, then eventually nobody is going to bother helping. Including me. And then it might be too late.”

“Fix what, exactly?” Nick said tersely. “We’re brothers. We get under each other’s skin all the time.”

“Yes, Knickers was very cranky about my smoking habit,” Freddie said. “And your sister. And a lot of other things.”

“Name one of them that wasn’t earned,” Nick shot back.