Her whole worldview held that power was permission: that having more money and more influence than someone else entitled you to treat them however you liked, that strength was measured by how freely you could indulge your contempt.

It was why she had thrown the wine; she believed her position placed her above consequence.

And Robert, who actually held the kind of power Victoria only imagined she had, understood the exact opposite: that real power is measured not by what you are free to do to people but by what you refuse to do to them despite being free.

He could have destroyed them lawlessly and no one would have stopped him.