"I'm so glad you didn't," Juliana said immediately, with feeling. The words themselves might not have been very significant — most people would be glad to hear that most other people had not died — but her tone conveyed all of the pent up worry and anxiety from the past week, and her relief at finally being able to see and touch and talk with Camilla again. "But really you couldn't have, you know, because what would I have done with the House of Lytton? You can never leave me in charge there again, Camilla, and I mean it." She was talking too much now, but it was easier to talk about the House of Lytton than to talk about something else. This was really just the same thing she'd been doing to get through the last week — making herself too-busy with the House of Lytton so that she didn't have any time left to sit with her feelings.

"I tried to keep things moving but we've had to reschedule everyone except the fittings," she explained. "And we've gotten to the point where we really can't continue without a designer, and how would I have even gone about hiring another one if I'd wanted to? You know I have no eye for any of it," she said, shaking her head as she pulled back from the hug long enough to wipe some stray tears from the corners of her eyes. "So if you ever do plan to go off and die you need to deputize someone other than me to carry on your legacy, I hope you understand, because I've been quite hopeless about it since you've been away."

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