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What do you call yourself?” I asked. “Oh, I’m a witch, darling,” she said. “Or a sorceress—depends on my mood.” “And who trained you?” Lady Helena smiled. “Who do you think trained me?” she said. “My mother, of course. As her mother trained her and hers before her. It all goes back to Queen Caroline, you know.” Back to the court of Caroline of Ansbach, who was famously brighter than her husband—the future George II. Caroline, who kept company with Walpole and Leibnitz and did medical experiments on condemned prisoners and orphaned children. “Early form of vaccination, darling,” said Helena. “And they all lived happily ever after.
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