Irene's grin is like a spark off flint. She puts it away when Caroline says everybody left London, her long eyelashes hitting her cheeks once or twice as she blinks—

Yes, she should have been more curious about that notion of humanity itself losing a war, shouldn't she? It's not the strangest thing she's heard all day, is all—unfortunately. Brows hitching up, she says, "I can't not ask what happened."