“Nothing has happened,” Rufina returned emphatically to her daughter, “and that is the story to which we will be sticking.”

Merlin help them, they had killed someone. Even if Rufina could—and were willing to—bear such a scandal, her children were in no position to do so. They would continue on as planned, escape the fog and all the troubles that it had brought, and remain quiet.

Her pulse raced and her ears roared and she felt as though she might be sick, but Rufina also felt a very subtle calm begin to drape over her, so lightly as to almost not be there—unsurprising, under the circumstances.

Secrets were always a socialite’s best friend.