Camilla heard the news before he said it. She always did. She was the one who always provided house staff for her Son and she knew just how to plant a loyal informant.
Still, when Julian stepped into her sitting room and said, "I proposed," she chose ice over grace.
"You what?"She dropped her teacup back into its saucer dramatically. "Julian, please be serious."
"I am." He didn't sit. He never did when he had something to say. "I asked Ashley to marry me. Properly. No contract. No end date."
Camilla's mouth tightened. "You cannot make a lifetime out of a scandal. That girl is…"
"My wife," he said, calm enough to sting. "Full stop."
She blinked, thrown by the repetition of his line from dinner. "Your judgment is clouded. You have always been… susceptible to intensity. It burns hot, it burns out. Maddie understood our world. She…"
"Stop." The word wasn't loud. It landed like a hand on a brake. "Enough with Maggie already. You keep saying Maddie as if you know her. You don't."
