November 1793 “Is it dangerous?” Eleanor asked her husband’s unacknowledged brother. They had been friends for close to a decade, since he first rescued a drunken Haverford from footpads one evening, and dragged him home to Haverford House. He had said, in exasperation, “I do not know why I bother. He never changes. I should […]
They met in the little park opposite the confectioners, The Pot and Pineapple. The Duchess of Haverford had brought her two sons, as promised. The Marquis of Aldridge, a boy of eleven, bowed in proper form and followed that with a brilliant smile. He has his father’s–our father’s–charm in full measure, Lia thought. He looked […]
“Your Grace,” said the Duke of Dellborough, the deep inclination of his head showing his respect for his peer’s estimable wife. “Your Grace,” replied the Duchess of Haverford, with a polite curtsey, equal to equal. He offered his arm. “May I purchase you a cup of tea?” The duchess checked the whereabouts of her […]
Rosa Gavenor waited for the butler to return and conduct her upstairs to the duchess who had commanded her presence. The double duchess, they called her in the ton, for she had been the wife of the Duke of Haverford for long enough that her son was a man entering his middle years when he […]
Or not tea, to be honest. This is another excerpt post. This one is from Hook, Lyon, and Sinker, my next Lyons’ Den book. My heroine and her family attend a charity ball at the house of the Duchess of Winshire. For the second evening in a row, Benjamin had offered himself as escort to […]
Eleanor knew the signs. Anthony was worried about something. (She was so pleased that he had agreed to allow her to call him by his first name. He had been Aldridge since he was a babe in the cradle, but it made her stomach ache to call him Haverford, which was the proper way to […]
This was not the first time that Eleanor, the Duchess of Winshire, had sat down to afternoon tea with Mrs Moriarty. The young woman was the daughter of an excellent family, but had been ruined—by the rules of Society, at least—several times before she was out of her teens. She had hidden in the slums […]
Readers, shortly we shall be joined by our hostess, Her Grace, the Duchess of Haverford. For those who have not yet met her grace, or have seen her only in passing in one of my books, let me tell you a little of her biography. Her Grace Eleanor, Duchess of Haverford, once hoped to marry […]
“Would your grace care for a cup of tea while you wait for your horses to be shod?” asked the farrier’s husband. Eleanor, Duchess of Winshire, smiled at the man. “Thank you. That would be very pleasant,” she said. He ushered her and her companion around the corner of the farrier’s shed and to a […]
Her Grace of Haverford watched her guest enter the room. What a stunning young lady. England’s newest duchess was dressed in a peach-colored gown of the first stare. It fit her to perfection. She carried a reticule that matched the pattern of the dress, and wore short gloves in a slightly paler shade. Discreet diamonds […]