“Where there’s tea, there’s hope”

The title quote comes from Arthur Wing Pinero, a British dramatist of the late nineteenth century. I feel confident he knows of what he speaks. For myself, an invitation to a formal tea would be terrifying. I’ve never been one to grasp the finer points of social graces. Like my daughter says, “We’re clumsy people.” So, when my main character, Ben Pryor, is invited to tea by the matriarch of Cold Creek Plantation in 1836, I had no trouble describing his dread. What were the rules for such an occasion? My working-class parents were sticklers for good table manners, but ...