Georgina added, with a laugh, that her sister-in-law was probably happier organizing a kitchen than talking to businesspeople.

No one had asked for the explanation.

They offered it because, over the years, the Stroud family had learned that making Lenore smaller was an easy way to make Crispin look larger.

It had become a reflex — a thing they did without thinking, the way you might straighten a picture on a wall, never once wondering whether the picture wanted to hang where they’d decided to put it.

Chapter 7 — The Story He Told

Near one of the central tables, Crispin was talking to a cluster of executives.