(Author's POV)
Later, Serena appeared in the hallway outside the sitting room, wearing her most carefully casual expression.
"Grandmother," she said, "I heard something about Uncle Phineas-"
"Did you?" Eleanor picked up her coffee cup.
"Is it true that he-"
"Serena, darling. Your uncle is a grown man who makes his own decisions. Whatever he does is his business, unless he chooses to share it with you himself." She smiled serenely. "Now, weren't you supposed to call your mother back this evening?"
Serena opened her mouth, then closed it. She left without learning a single useful thing.
Eleanor sipped her coffee, content.
(Aurora's POV)
The morning after we registered the marriage, I woke up with the same strange, untethered feeling I'd fallen asleep with. Like the whole day before
