Tamra, Brianna Jade’s mom, said that as soon as Edmund and her daughter were officially engaged, there would be major, major renovations on the Hall, and you’d better believe all the ancient rugs would be the first thing to go, before the moths in them got to her Italian cashmere. Brianna Jade’s hands were folded in her lap, her expression perfectly composed as she pictured Edmund appearing in the doorway of the morning room, smiling at her with his polite, English-gentleman smile, about to say – But Brianna Jade made herself stop right there, before she actually heard the words in her head. She wanted them to be lovely and new when Edmund said them to her, to have her own reaction be completely spontaneous. This was a luxury she had barely ever enjoyed in her adult life to date: from the age of fifteen, she had competed in one pageant after another for four straight years, and pageant competitors were programmed like computers. Even though those days were behind her, had ended when Tamra married vast amounts of money in the shape of Ken Maloney, the Fracking King of America, Brianna Jade had still needed to learn how to behave in her new life, to follow another set of rules.
