"No, she won't," Juliana said immediately and firmly. Juliana had been through the debutante game herself, getting dragged along from one event to another until her mother had given up on her; if she could get through it without being forced into a marriage she had no desire to participate in, she was sure Camilla could do the same. Camilla had a career and a reputation, after all. Jules did, too, but not one that anyone else knew about. As far as her parents were concerned she just had a pet project, a little hobby she enjoyed wiling away her evening hours with. If she could fend off marriage with such an ostensibly thin pretense, she was sure Camilla could do the same.

"You'll be in mourning this whole season," she pointed out. She didn't know if that was actually true, because the specifics of mourning attire had never been necessary for her to learn — her family was lucky to never have lost an immediate member, but it was easy for her to suppose that the loss of Marcus Lytton would echo through the better part of a year, at least. "So it's not as though she could ask you to think of it right away. And by next year the House of Lytton will be doing so well she'll never think to suggest it," Jules said confidently. She knew nothing of fashion, cared nothing for fashion — but if Camilla needed the House of Lytton to be successful, Juliana could devote her whole being to make that happen.

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   Camilla Lytton