The reasoning was sound even if it annoyed Harriet to her very core. There was nothing to be done about it now and it galled Harriet more that she had not been involved in a single moment of the marriage than the marriage itself. Camilla Zabini was a fine choice and a good match for her son: it was a shame they were such a pair of sluts that it had to happen this way.

"I need a brandy," she said in a manner that might have been misconstrued by others as casualness when in fact it was the furthest thing from. If her son knew what was good for him then he would not make that mistake.