I spent most of the journey home gazing out of the window, huddled within a heavy woolen shawl to stave off the chill of the night as I attempted to come to terms with the fact that I had fallen for my husband. Matters were further compounded by how I felt about his lover. I see the way you look…
Read More
Our host for the evening, Viscount Delmar, had recently inherited his position. The previous viscount had passed without issue, so the title had been transferred to his eldest cousin: the portly young man currently seated at the head of the dinner table. As he was unmarried, the seat opposite him fell to the ranking noblewoman. In this case, me. The…
Read More
Half an hour later, John and I began the short drive to the Viscount Delmar’s. Full night had descended upon London, bringing with it a fog that rendered the darkness outside the carriage windows murky and strange. It played tricks with my senses, muffled the clamor of the surrounding city and amplified the sounds that were closest to us, making…
Read More
London, April 1804 “Too tight, Your Grace?” my handmaid, Harriet, asked me after she stuck the final pearl-tipped pin into my hair. I turned my head, inspecting her handiwork in the vanity mirror. The low chignon she’d coiffed my unruly mane into appeared effortless and elegant, and I was reluctant to tell her that it pulled mercilessly at my scalp….
Read More
I sped blindly around the corner in the hallway, not knowing where I was going, only that I needed to escape. A set of stairs, their narrowness marking them as the servants’ stairs, appeared at my right, and I wrenched my skirts up and climbed them, shocking a maid into a high-pitched shriek when I burst through the door at…
Read More
