The restaurant was a place of soft elegance, with the low murmur of conversation and the soft clinking of silverware creating a calm atmosphere.
But for Anne, the atmosphere was anything but calm. She sat at a small table by the window, her fingers tapping an impatient rhythm on the starched white tablecloth. She glanced toward the door for the tenth time in as many minutes, her brow furrowed with irritation. Philip was late.
To distract herself, she picked up the pamphlet that she had bought from a paperboy on the street. The bold, black headline seemed to scream at her, the words a public branding of her family's shame.
[BARONESS AUGUSTA ELLINGTON ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER, FORGERY, AND ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT. SHE IS TO SERVE HER SENTENCE AT NEWGATE PRISON.]
Anne's hand tightened, crumpling the flimsy paper. She had read it a dozen times, each time feeling a fresh wave of humiliation and a cold, hard resolve. This was her mother's world now. It would not be hers.
