The Dowager's withdrawal from the estate's visible life happened so gradually that it was several days before I could identify a specific moment when it had begun.
She had been retreating by degrees since the King's verdict, each degree small enough to look like ordinary variation in a woman who had always managed her public presence carefully. A meal taken in her chambers rather than at the household table. An absence from the weekly coordination meeting, attributed to a minor indisposition. An afternoon where the east corridor, which ran past her primary sitting room, was quieter than usual because the staff who normally had reason to pass it were finding their routes elsewhere.
By the end of the second week after Evelyne's departure, the withdrawal was complete.
The Dowager Duchess Gwendolyn was in her private wing. She was comfortable. She was attended by her personal staff. She was, by every available indicator, in good health. And she was not coming out.
