"Names like 'Chiswick'?" Greta arches an eyebrow at him. 'Chiswick' sounds like the sort of noise an insect might make. It's certainly not something you'd call a village.

"And 'once upon a time' is a--a fine turn of phrase," she adds, a touch defensively. "How else would you start a story about where you came from? With the specific date?" She huffs out a humorless laugh. "Maybe that's how things are done in the United Kingdom," she says, barely resisting the urge to throw in a wiggly-fingered aren't-you-fancy hand gesture, "but not in ours."