When a chance encounter with a reputed rake leads to an improper kiss, a respectable young lady finds herself distracted by thoughts of delicious romance.
She was beautiful and tempting but the scourge of society. How would independent ill-mannered Jaisy become the fantastically rich Lady Easterling? How would this societal outcast seduce Lord Carlin, London's most dashing and notorious bachelor? How would the enchanting Lady Easterling earn the ni...
Only after her husband had departed for the village, there to observe the prize-fight that was the high point of the pleasure fair, did she rise. Skirting the bed in which she now slept alone, she performed her ablutions at the corner basin stand. Her digestive system thus far demonstrating a rel...
Rather, that was what he had meant to do. The books lay disregarded on the desk in front of him while he stared at the tall wooden clock that stood in front of a far wall. With the best intentions in the world, or almost the best, because Benedict had to admit that he had been more than a little ...
It was the family habit to breakfast informally, from dishes placed on the mahogany sideboard. Rather, the family would be breakfasting informally, if they ever crawled out of bed. Ianthe picked up a piece of muffin and crumbled it on her plate. Cara walked into the room, dressed for riding in a ...
As usual at this late hour, the large room was crowded with fashionable gentlemen in evening dress. In one corner, a faro bank was in full swing. Among the players present there was Lord Stirling, who had already established himself as a gambler with a great deal of cool caution and a definite fl...
He paused at Weston’s to inspect the progress of a coat he was having made, at Hoby’s to order a pair of fashionable Hessian boots with a tassel dangling from their V-shaped front, and at Lock’s to inquire about a chapeau bras. Since these acquisitions failed to cheer him, he next repaired to Whi...
I fear I am the most undutiful wretch in nature, she wrote, and cannot doubt that Papa wilt be all out of patience with me. She thought wryly that the last remark might well qualify her as a mistress of understatement. Upon learning that his inconsiderate daughter had involved herself in an adven...
He was not so cup-shot, however, that he failed to realize the absurdity of applying to Mr. Slyte for advice that did not involve the drape of a jacket or the tying of a cravat. Better he had spoken with Lady Syb. Now there was a sobering thought. Chislett opened the front door. “Welcome home, Yo...
(Romanian proverb) As structures in Edinburgh’s Old Town climbed higher, their foundations sank deeper into the soft sandstone. The steep slopes on either side of the High Street had enabled builders to dig sideways into the ridge, building underground levels at depths not possible elsewhere....
She felt very pensive, as bent a lady who had just taken clandestine leave of her home. No more would Barbary know London, that great city of gin shops and great mansions; where the Thames had turned that spring into Freezeland Street, lined with booths and crowded with bakers and barbers and but...