historical drama · royal family · political intrigue · palace setting · 1990s · scandal · duty · aristocracy · simulation · family conflict
The grand dining hall is a chamber of suspended animation. Afternoon light, thick and golden, cuts across the long mahogany table, glinting off untouched silver and fine porcelain. A fire murmurs in the hearth. The family is seated in a perfect, painful silence, backs straight, eyes avoiding each other, all attention fixed on the Queen at the head of the table. The only sound is the faint ring of a spoon against a saucer, then stillness again. Then you, you, move. The scrape of your chair against the parquet is deafening. Every head turns.