Sleeping in separate bedrooms was not enough to stop Grace from invading her sister's personal space. In childhood they were close, but during their Hogwarts years had been separated both by their houses and by their differing values. That much was now becoming more apparent as they awaited their reentry (and in Grace's case, her initial debut) into society, but Grace was determined to be as close as ever, especially now that society would try to pit them against each other as two debutantes vying for the attention of Britain's eligible bachelors.

Sprawled across her sister's bed, Grace flipped through the book Clementine had purchased her for Christmas—The Art of Conversation, the title said, and the content was just that. It was nothing she hadn't heard before, but the author had somehow managed to organize everything into a way she could readily reference.

"What kind of man do you want to marry, Verity?" she asked as she reached the chapter on appropriate courtship practices. She had long suspected that their response on this subject would differ, which is why she did not worry so much about the impending season. Ford wished for them to marry well, but Grace suspected that was his way of pushing them to be ambitious in their pursuits.

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