The Season Read Free

I know. But that's how it feels. Especially when you grow up with three older brothers who seem to have an entirely different set of rules."
    "You're right," Ella spoke seriously, "but it seems that we don't really have a choice. Our options are rather limited."
    And Ella would know. As the eldest in a family of girls, Ella had a familial obligation to marry and marry well , setting the standard for her younger sisters... unless she could figure out a way to take herself out of the running. Ella had considered any number of options to render herself unmarriageable. The girls had discussed every possibility and come to one conclusion: The fastest way to be set "on the shelf" and ignored was to have one's reputation ruined.
    Unfortunately, being ruined was not an option, however tempting it was, for it seemed that ruination was the punishment for anyone daring enough to try something exciting. Girls in London society could have their reputation destroyed in any number of ways, but the biggest offenses were clear kissing (or something more scandalous) on the lips (or somewhere more scandalous); dancing three or more dances with someone at a ball ; or visiting a man at his home unchaperoned.
    Ella had considered these options again and again, even going so far as to make lists of the men she felt she could convince to aid her ruin, but she simply couldn't commit to bringing gossip and criticism down upon her family. After all , ruination didn't stop at the young lady. Polite society could be devastatingly cruel to her loved ones as well .
    "Unless I decide to give my mother a case of hysterics and destroy my sisters' chances of ever being matched, I have to settle for remaining unnoticed," Ella said to no one in particular.
    Vivi chuckled and shook her head at her friend. "You make it sound so easy! You're beautiful and come with a sizable dowry. Spinsterhood isn't exactly guaranteed, Ella ."
    "Ah, but you've forgotten my most hideous trait. No one wants an intelligent wife." Ella gave a mock shudder. "Too terrifying a possibility."
    Alex laughed. "Sadly, I think you're right. Reveal just enough of your intelligence and you're safe from being courted. Especiall y by any of the ninnies who will be asking us to take a turn about the room at Almack's."
    Her friend smiled. "Let's hope so, because that's the best plan I've got. It's the only way my novel is ever going to be written."
    It wasn't simply that Ella found the idea of a proper marriage to a proper man distasteful, it was that she found it in direct opposition to the one thing she had wanted to do for as long as she could remember. Ella had dreams of becoming a great novelist and writing the sort of book that told the story of her time. She read anything she could get her hands on and was rarely seen without her notebooks, which held any ideas and observations she thought would be useful when she finally had a chance to tell her tale.
    Of course, the challenge of being a woman who writes loomed over Ella 's head. Of all the respectable novelists in the past fifty years, few had (at least publicly) admitted to being women. But Ella was well aware that the small odds of her being an unmarried female author were slightly higher than the minuscule odds of being a married one. And she was willing to bet on them.
    "That reminds me," Vivi interjected, "I have an idea for your book that I think might be just perfect." The girls were always trading concepts and plots to be recorded in Ella 's notebook. "I overheard my father discussing the impending capture of a series of spies — English spies — who have been trading secrets to the French."
    Alex leaned back against the chaise and pulled her feet up under her. She loved hearing tales of Vivi's eavesdropping. "Oooh ... go on."
    Vivi lea ned forward, a natural storytell er with a gift for making anything sound interesting. "From what I could gather, the Royal Navy have had some trouble with their secret movements being intercepted