Chapter 1
“In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.”
~Lord Byron
London, England
1821
Almost Spring
All of High Society knew the McQuoid family to be an enormous, scandalous, boisterous, notorious—and every other imaginable “ous”—lot.
What elseshouldone expect? The Earl of Abington and his six children were, after all, ofScottishstock.
The ton was looking to the McQuoids for one scandal or another. Why should they not when the McQuoids unfailingly giveth and provideth them?
As for the Earl and Countess of Abington’s youngest child—a daughter, Lady Fleur McQuoid—since her very birth, she had been centered in the scandal sheets.
Actually—
The Londoner
Almost-Killing of the Countess
by M. Fairpoint
Lady F nearly kills the Countess of A…
—was how it read, to be exact.
In Polite Society’s brutality, papers and peers blamed a babe for a heinous crime—attempted murder.
Born just minutes after her almost-twin, Quillon, at the very start of a new year, Fleur was technically a year younger in name. She deeply resented both the age gap and her brother’s teasing about it.
Since Fleur’s arrival, her siblings and cousins got into enough trouble to make her look almost saintly.
Why, even now, on the cusp of Fleur’s debut for the upcoming London Season, the latest McQuoid shenanigans had nothing to do with her.
A morsel so delicious that nearly all the ton had prematurely returned to London before the Season to be closer to the gossip.
Her cousin, Miss Meghan McQuoid-Smith, now the Countess of Culross, was abducted by a privateer she loved, which resulted in jilting her actual betrothed, the Duke of Hartwell.
Not that Fleur had continued on like St. Margaret. No one knew anything about Fleur’s almost-ruinous adventure several weeks earlier.
At least not yet.
And God willing, they never would.
If her secret was discovered, no family member would be spared; even the men would face consequences, though they were usually pardoned.
Prior to her cousin Meghan’s almost-wedding to the Duke of Hartwell, Fleur, Meghan, and Meghan’s younger sister, Andromena, sneaked out to Lord and Lady Rutland’s notorious masquerade.
And ever since that one magical night, she had resided—and quite happily so—in her mind, living over and over each and every wonderful—
“My. My. My. If it isn’t the spirited Lady Fleur McQuoid.”
Lost in her memories, Fleur took a moment to return to the literary auction about to commence in Baron and Baroness Chilton’s library.
