Duchess By Night
Chapter One
In Which Cinderella Dresses for the Ball and Her Fairy
Godmother Brings a Goose Instead of a Pumpkin
January 6 (Twelfth Night), 1784
A Costume Ball
The Country Seat of the Duke of Beaumont
Nursery tales are full of fascinating widows, although
they aren't always the nicest characters. Cinderella's
stepmother likely put on a dazzling gown for the
prince's ball, even if her daughters did inherit her big
feet and sharp tongue.
Harriet, Duchess of Berrow, realized soon after her
husband died that there are glamorous widows, and then
there are widows who live in shoes with too many
children, like poor Loveday Billing. There are widows
who dance all night with younger men, and then there are
dowdy widows who are offered only pinched smiles.
Harriet had no illusions about what kind of widow she
was. She was the kind who lived in a shoe, and never
mind the fact that she had no children and her estate
was much larger than a shoe.
Her husband had been dead for two years and no
younger-or older-men were lining up to ask her to dance.
Most of her acquaintances still got a ... read full excerpt from Duchess By Night ebook
