The realities of social strata and responsibility mean nothing but a plot point in today’s modern literature, but outside of these stories we are not pushing for change. The ideals we embody in our art rarely play themselves out in our lives. What would happen if we took the example of our fictional heroes; what if each of us was a Don Juan?” —FROM THE COLLECTED ESSAYS OF LORD ELIAS ADDISON Elias managed to avoid his mother’s ire by way of a little white lie—“I most certainly told you that I would be away from Ashworth this afternoon; I had a meeting with the solicitor regarding one of the country estates.” He had blinked like an innocent at her wrath, insisting that he could not be expected to know that Lord Francis would be visiting when he had not been informed. That much was the truth. Still, Sophia stared daggers at him all through the meal. Lord Sebastian Frost, his cousin and heir of the Earl of Harrington, prattled on about the lovely time he spent in India and how good it was to be back in “civilization.”
