The dining room of the Carson estate, which moments before had been filled with warmth and laughter, was now as cold and silent as a graveyard.
The announcement of Philip and Anne's courtship hung in the air, a shocking and unwelcome piece of news.
The Dowager Duchess Elena was the first to break the silence. She fixed her eldest grandson with a sharp, disappointed stare. " Philip, what is the meaning of this, how is it," she asked, her voice dangerously quiet, "that you have suddenly become so infatuated with your new in-law?"
