If there was one thing Lady Selina Balfour could do, it was manage a crisis. The preparations for the ball in honour of the Austrian ambassador had been painstakingly put together over the course of many weeks. And, like all carefully laid plans, they went awry at the worst possible moment. It started that morning, […]

“I won’t do it,” said Julia, setting her heavy bag down on the cobblestones. “Whatever the cost, I refuse to begin my new life with a lie.” She waved away the footman who stood ready to take her luggage. It still felt strange to have servants available to cater to her every need. In any […]

Paris. Strasbourg. Lyon. Marseilles. Lady Edith Balfour traced her finger lightly across the surface of the map, travelling the length of France in one easy swoop before falling south into Italy. She paused briefly to appreciate the majesty of the Alps, evoked in minimal fashion by a zigzagging black line, and descended towards Venice, Florence, […]

Daisy Morton was standing in the one of the most magnificent rooms she had ever seen, but she refused to let her admiration show. She was a Morton of Shipwood Hall, after all, the sister of a baron and the stepdaughter of the Earl of Peyton, and if she was not used to grand houses […]