Edwardian Historical
Before the Broken Archive
Rowan Abernathy
The scandal began with a teacup, which was absurd enough to make London remember it. Not the kind of teacup a woman chose for comfort, not the thin blue china kept near a sickbed or the thick brown mug a kitchen maid wrapped both hands around before dawn. This one was porcelain from Limoges, painted with green vines and a rim of worn gilt, and it shattered against the marble hearth in the east drawing room of Ravenhurst House at precisely five minutes past four on an April afternoon in 1908.