I hope you have friends nearby to look in on you. A woman alone is never entirely safe. Your concerned cousin, Michael No more marriage mart. That would be Elinor Bancroft’s Christmas gift to herself this year. Ignoring the antics of her bored young cousins and their friend as the Bancroft carriage hurtled toward Sheffield for the holiday, Ellie gave a heartfelt sigh. She’d rather be a spinster at home in Sheffield than endure another humiliating Season in London. Just the thought of being launched into the social whirl again in a mere three months made her stomach churn. Now all she had to do was convince Aunt Alys and Papa to give up on marrying her off. She frowned. That was unlikely. “The Christmas goose at Uncle Joseph’s house is the best,” eleven-year-old Percy Metcalf told his quiet school chum, Charlie Dickens, who’d come with them for the holidays. “He buys the biggest one in town.”
