Chapter Sixteen
In the end, the Werth family’s arrival in London was not the exciting event Gussie had sometimes dreamed of. The party that drew up outside the house in Hanover Place made for a dispirited bunch. Lady Werth had not spoken a word all day, Lord Werth barely a syllable or two; even Gussie and Miss Frostell had been little disposed for conversation. Numbed with weariness and shock, and in some cases the injuries incurred during (and immediately before) the fire, no one had the energy to attempt a brightening of the mood.
No one except for Great-Aunt Honoria, that is — in a manner of speaking.
‘We are far better off without the Book,’ she said, and kept saying it, approximately thrice an hour, until Gussie could cheerfully have eviscerated her. Not even the observation that t
