Soft afternoon light filtered through tall, arched windows, illuminating the delicate porcelain teacups and silver spoons that adorned each table of the tea room. The air was filled with the quiet murmur of polite conversation and the scent of expensive tea and freshly baked pastries.
It was in this bastion of decorum that the Dowager Duchess Elena found herself sitting opposite a ghost from her past: Baron Edgar Ellington.
"How long has it been,Elena?" Edgar said, his voice a low rumble that felt out of place in the delicate room. He sat across from her, a wry smile on his aged face. "Twenty years? Or is it thirty now?"
Elena seemed entirely uninterested in his trip down memory lane. She took a slow, deliberate sip of her tea, her gaze fixed on a point just over his shoulder.
