Chapter 12

⁠​​​‌​​​​​‌​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌‌‌‌​‌​‌‌​‌​⁠“After all,” Lady Carey sighed, throwing down a racing calendar and lighting a cigarette, “London is the only thoroughly civilized Anglo-Saxon capital in the world. Please don’t look at me like that, Duchess. I know—this is your holy of holies, but the Duke smokes here—I’ve seen him. My cigarettes are very tiny and very harmless.”

The Duchess, who wore gold-rimmed spectacles, and was a person of we