12 thDecember 1817. Belvedere House, Dorset. Chance had not intended to spend quite so long in the company of his friends. He really hadn’t. Well, yes, all right, he had intended to avoid going home for as long as he possibly could, but… that was beside the point. The point was, somehow it had become […]
I don’t give a damn for your whoring or if you drink yourself to death, so long as you marry and produce your heir before you’re too poxed or insensible to do to your duty. Surprisingly, there are many women willing to overlook your shortcomings for the lure of your money and title. Even your […]
Dearest Harriet, I am certainly up to the challenge of getting your brother married. The dear man is far too handsome and kind to spend a moment longer alone. Truly, it would be a crying shame if he does not find a wife. I agree that wretched girl did him so much damage when she […]
Am I foolish, to be so intent on revenge, to risk everything I have for the chance of retribution? Perhaps, but everything I have is a lie, and sooner or later the truth will find me. At least, when the inevitable happens, I will have the satisfaction of having made him pay. That will be […]
Of course it’s a waste of money but waste it we must, though the boy is an imbecile. For God’s sake, don’t let them expel him. Pay anything. At least he excels at sport or he’d be a damned embarrassment. If he didn’t look so much like me, I’d think his mother had produced a […]
Chance had not intended to spend quite so long in the company of his friends. He really hadn’t. Well, yes, all right, he had intended to avoid going home for as long as he possibly could, but… that was beside the point. The point was, somehow it had become the twelfth of December, and he’d […]
“I take it this week has so far not produced the results we had hoped for?” Jasper asked as they walked back from his workshop. Jasper was a craftsman of considerable skill, though few but his closest friends knew it. Max shrugged and gave a rueful smile. “What’s wrong with me, Jasper? I know all […]
Too many mouths… “Tol’ you she had one in the basket again.” Livvy noted the smug expression on Mrs Pengelly’s face with a frisson of irritation. She might well have guessed before Livvy had. It didn’t make the news any more welcome. Another poor mite to add to the chaos and, more to the point, […]
Felicity Bunting was five and twenty, and on the shelf. Everyone knew it. Well, not any longer. As of ten minutes ago, she had become spectacularly engaged to the wickedest rake in Christendom. Suddenly, the dusty shelf she had resented for so long looked rather appealing, and she wanted to climb back on it and […]
“Oh, my feet hurt!” Lottie wailed as Eliza dragged her up the steps to the front door. “I’ll never dance again.” “If only you’d never speak again,” Eliza muttered. After a tedious carriage ride home, the excitement of their long day had given way to exhaustion, and her legendary patience was unravelling with speed. “If […]
Nic curled his hands about his mouth and blew to revive his numb fingers. The house had been quiet for at least an hour, but that was no guarantee every occupant was asleep. He looked up, muttering a filthy curse as soft white flakes tumbled from the inky skies above. The night was perishing cold […]
My dear Kitty, I hardly know where to begin. I only went out for an hour, yet in that brief interval everyone seems to have run quite mad. Do you remember Ruth’s dare, ‘To say something utterly outrageous to a handsome man’? Well, I’d say she’s outdone herself. ― Excerpt of a letter from Miss […]
Dear Jemima, I do hope that you are well. It’s been so long since any of us heard from you. I had hoped you would attend St Clair’s ball, but Kitty tells me you won’t be there. It’s an age since we saw you last. Is everything all right? I warn you I intend to […]
At twelve years old, there were few things in the world that Lucretia ‘Crecy’ Holbrook could endure less than a grown-up party. She’d slipped away as soon as possible, leaving her big sister Belle to be the well-behaved one and stealing into the room where a lavish buffet had been laid out. Here, she picked […]
“They looked terribly happy, didn’t they?” Alice said with a wistful sigh as the carriage rumbled through London. Alice was returning home with Matilda after the marriage of their dear friend Prunella to the Duke of Bedwin. That Prue was now a duchess was extraordinary and so at odds with her friend’s character she could […]
Dear Miss Hunt, I am so happy that you are coming to stay with me. I wish my uncle would be here too, but he has boring work to do in town. He is pretending he doesn’t mind, but he is very cross as he would like to be here for your visit too. Rules […]
Dear Miss Hunt, I wish you were here with us. Everything is strange. Uncle won’t let me out of his sight. I got cross yesterday because he won’t tell me anything and I punished him by hiding. By the time he found me, I regretted it very much. He was so frantic he looked like […]
London. 28 th July 1814. I perceive, at last, that I must be a very selfish kind of man. Fate has intervened and given me a position in life I neither expected nor feel worthy of. Soon—if I do as Trevick expects and wishes—I will add great wealth to my good fortune. Any other man […]
I promised myself I would not write again, but it seems I have no self-control where you are concerned. Why did you not reply to my last letter? Do you have any idea how dull it is, always waiting for a reply that never comes? I have been to balls and dinners and rout parties […]
I feel like I’m running pell-mell towards a clif ’s edge, and though I know there’s a sheer drop to face, I can’t seem to stop myself. I never considered myself a stupid girl, but surely this is madness. Yet the alternative is to give in and do as I’m told and marry a man […]
