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Abducted Bride Seeks New Bridegroom

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On August 13, 2022

In Jude Knight, Teatime Tattler

Miss A.F. had an unsuccessful Season. No surprise, you say, dear reader. Who would want to offer for a woman who jilted her groom at the altar, rode off with a troop of horsemen, and disappeared from sight for three years? Abducted by fairies, say the credulous. Ran off with the gypsies, say others. Fairies or gypsies, the lady’s reputation is non-existent, and one can only marvel at her gall in thinking to appear in Society.

Unsuccessfully, as we say. But the lady is made of strong stuff! She has managed to enveigle her way into one of Lady Osborne’s house parties! Can the noted matchmaker find a husband for such an unlikely candidate? She has a wager with her cousin that she can.

This time, dear reader, we believe she has bitten off more than she can chew!

In other news, the ever proper Earl of H. is attending the same house party. Will he find a bride among Lady Osbourne’s collection of misfits, hoydens, and bluestockings? One thing is certain. Miss A. F. need not apply!

The Wedding Wager

The Boast—pride goeth before the fall…

After facilitating the match of the season, Lady Pandora “Pansy” Osbourne, has boasted that she is the best matchmaker The Ton has ever seen. Always willing to bring her cousin down a peg or two, her cousin, Lady Octavia Sewell insists that was no feat of matchmaking at all, as the couple involved were clearly destined for one another despite Pansy’s meddling. A bitter argument ensues and a dreadful challenge is issued. Pansy must do more than say it… she must prove it.

The terms of the wager are set!

Pansy must produce no less than one match per month between people who have been notoriously unmarriageable—spinsters, bluestockings, rakes and fortune hunters, oh my! But there’s more riding on this than simply her pride! If Pansy loses, she will have to give up her most prized possession—a tiara that belonged to their grandmother will be forfeited into Octavia’s grasping hands.

Published 27 September

Find your buy link at https://books2read.com/b/mdDpyX

The Husband Gamble

When the pawn becomes Queen, she and the opposing King will both win the game of love

Amaryllis Fernhill fled her wedding to her uncle’s thrice-widowed crony, ruining herself in the eyes of ton. Three years on, she needs a husband to unlock her inheritance—preferably one who wants little to do with the society that has rejected her. Can a countess famous for making unlikely matches make one for her?

The Earl of Hythe needs a countess who will add luster to his family name and support his career as a diplomat and politician in London and the capitals of Europe. But he also wants a wife, a partner, a friend. No one he meets seeks to know the man behind the title. Can the matchmaking countess succeed in finding a perfect lady with a caring heart?

Rilla and Hythe write one another off as all wrong, but when they are drawn together at the countess’s house party, they discover how right such a match could be.

Who is the dowager Countess of Seahaven?

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On March 5, 2022

In Bluestocking Belles, Regency (19th century Britain), Teatime Tattler

Who is the dowager Countess of Seahaven? It is a question that will be on the lips of many this Season in York.

You may remember that the Earl of Seahaven produced no legitimate sons, despite an effort that almost matched that of the famous Tudor king.  Indeed, some wits dubbed him Henry the Fifth!

Not that the late earl lacked children. Five wives produced ten daughters between them, the last born posthumously to the dowager aforementioned a little more than four years ago..

But what became of the dowager, her daughter, and her nine stepdaughters?

Until today, the Polite World has not been able to answer this question.

However, dear readers, your Teatime Tattler correspondent has been indefatigable in search of the truth, which will be of more interest today than ever, given circumstances.

For Lady Seahaven and her charges are about to burst on the social scene here in York. Your correspondent has learned that the dowager is related to a respected, if eccentric, stalwart of York Society, Lady Rose St Aubyn.

Lady Rose is once again off on her travels, and has arranged for her niece to take over her townhouse.

So we in York are going to be privileged to see the debut of the countess and six of her stepdaughters. (The eldest had a London Season more than a decade ago, but did not take.)

Your correspondent went hunting for more information about the mysterious ladies.

The current Lord Seahaven was unhelpful. All he would tell us was that the ladies did not live in any of his properties, and that the fifth and surviving wife of his predecessor was no lady.

“Her parents were tradespeople, and I will leave it to you to figure out how a female like that enviegled her way into the earl’s bed,” he said.

Given that the lady is an acknowledged St Aubyn, I think we can ignore the earl’s remark. He was, before his unexpected assension to the oak leaves, a minor merchant himself.

However, while we know where the Seahaven ladies will be by the end of March (in Lady Rose’s townhouse), we have been unable to discover where they have lived in the four years since the old earl died.

Dear reader, we will watch this York Season with great interest, and will be sure to keep you informed.

Desperate Daughters

The next Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends is out on May 8th, and tells the story of nine ladies, all related, who discover happiness awaiting them in York in the season.

Now on preorder at only 99c. Price reduction ends with publication. Click on the project page for more information and buy links.

Damsels in Distress Take York by Storm — Love Against the Odds?

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On November 20, 2021

In Jude Knight, Teatime Tattler

The women who call themselves the Bluestocking Belles are at it again, Sam — invading another set of lives and writing a series of tell-all stories. And people call the Tattler a scandal rag!

This one will be out next year, but I should be able to scrape a few details from the Belles and their friends before then. This year, Meara Platt, Ella Quinn, Mary Lancaster, and Alina K. Field have joined the Belles for the collection.

So far, what I’ve discovered is that all the stories are about one family and their connections.

You may remember the jokes and gossip a few years back when the Earl of Seahaven took his fifth bride, and her young enough to be his granddaughter? And a baker’s daughter, at that. Then he died before the first year was out. All jokes about stamina and demanding young brides aside, it was a terrible thing for the girl, especially when the child she was carrying at the time was not the Earl’s longed-for son, but a ninth daughter.

The new earl, a distant cousin, decided that he had no responsibility for the upkeep of ten females. The dowager countess was left to her own devices, with her own baby girl and eight step-daughters.

That was three years ago, more or less. The latest news will be in the Bluestocking Belles’ new collection of stories. Apparently, the ladies have managed to somehow afford a York Season! There’ll be more than the races to amuse the Polite World this year. It’ll be intriguing to see how many suitors are willing to take on a bride with a very small dowry and a whole platoon of sisters.

I’ll be digging around some more, Sam, and I’ll certainly let you know what I find out.

Oh! And the collection is called Desperate Daughters. Catchy title, that, and it says it all, really. This should be a lot of fun!

***

Read more about Desperate Daughters and preorder here.

BISHOP DECRIES MAGIC TOKEN

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On November 28, 2018

In Bluestocking Belles, Teatime Tattler

TEATIME TATTLER: Your Grace, London is humming with the news of your most recent sermon. You spoke with some concern about a magic ring that purportedly brings lovers together.

THE BISHOP OF HESKINGTON: The Devil’s work, sir. I do not scruple to say a pernicious evil that tempts foolish people onto the path to Hell.

TEATIME TATTLER: But Your Grace, in the stories I’ve heard, the ring brings true lovers together in the bonds of Holy Matrimony. Is this not a good thing?

HESKINGTON: (Snorting with disdain) Carnal love, sir. Carnal love. Hardly a suitable frame of mind in which to approach that most holy of institutions with reverence. Marriage is not about carnal love, except that those who are susceptible to its curse might, from time to time, in darkness and with due dispatch, find release from their sinful urges. This ring is from the Devil, I tell you.

TEATIME TATTLER: May I tell your readers that you believe in its power, then, Your Grace?

HESKINGTON: I believe in the power of the Lord to overcome even this devil-ring, and to guide the poor souls who have given themselves over to its evil into a state of rational grace. I pray that they will be delivered from their subjection, though I fear that the ring continues to exercise its malign effects long after it passes from their hands.

TEATIME TATTLER: Ah yes. Because the ring, its job done, goes to work its magic on others. But of whom we know seem to stay in love, do they not?

HESKINGTON: (Shakes head sadly) Indeed. Indeed, they do. I have heard terrible tales of people brought together even through time; of married couples settled in a relationship of benign neglect acting like giddy children; of brave soldiers wanting the courage to turn away an unsuitable match. It breaks my heart, sir. Who knows where it shall end? I can speak of it no more.

(He leaves.)

TEATIME TATTLER: So, gentle reader, which view is correct? Is the ring indeed a tool of the devil? Its magic beneficial, smoothing the way of true love? Or is the presence of the ring merely a coincidence in a love story that would have happened without it?

Decide for yourself as the Bluestocking Belles tell some of the stories of the ring. You’ll find short scenes in the week of December, on this page, on the individual blogs of the Belles, and on a special section of this website. See also the novellas in Follow Your Star Home, where eight pairs of lovers feel the power of the ring. Or do they?

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