Huntington London Townhouse, Morning
A stiff, anticipatory hush lingered in the Huntington drawing room, disturbed only by the crackle of the hearth and the rustle of silk as Duchess Arabella Huntington adjusted her seat with the practiced grace of a woman who had steered society for four decades.
Around her, an assembly of unusually grim faces formed a semicircle—Her Majesty Queen Charlotte herself presiding with cool, imperious calm; Lady Jersey perched with the poise of a falcon watching prey; Marquess Reginald and Marchioness Josephine quietly bracing for divine retribution; Duke Cecil and Duchess Eleanor Montgomery settling onto the settee as if attending a board meeting for a ship that had just crashed.
Duke Theodore only sighed—deeply, heavily, the sigh of a man who had raised daughters, survived Parliament, and believed he had seen everything… until Sophia Fiennes punched a sitting Earl in White's.
