"Sometimes I think that I am the sum of my losses," Caroline finally said. "And if so, then every loss that I suffer enlarges me. I hope my discourse does not strike you as too grim," she added, for a little sob-shudder had run through the Duchess’s body. "But this is how I make sense of my world. And if you must know, in some moments I phant’sy that I am a sort of heir to the Winter Queen—though I am not linked to her by blood—and that it is my destiny to go back to England and reclaim it for her. That is why I asked you to buy Leicester House, for she was born there."