A Classless Society?

In these so-called enlightened times, do we life in a classless society? I don't think so. Even today when everything is so much more relaxed, there’s still very much a class system, especially in England. When Lord Lucan (allegedly) murdered his children’s nanny back in the seventies in mistake for his wife, he disappeared off the face of the earth, expounding endless conspiracy theories in the process. He couldn’t have done that alone, unless he did the honourable thing and topped himself. It’s widely believed that some members of his exclusive club banded together to help him because, yep, he was one of them. 

In Regency times the class system was most definitely alive and kicking. It didn’t matter if you didn’t have two farthings to rub together, just so long as you were born into the right family. Talk about the luck of the draw!

In my novel Forgotten Heiress I deal with this issue. Seventeen-year-old Eloise is attractive, intelligent, witty and has a massive dowry, so she'll be the darling of society, right?

Wrong. 

Unfortunately Eloise just happens to be the daughter of a banker. Yep, they weren't considered socially acceptable even back then. Perhaps they knew something we didn't. Anyway, to make matters worse, Eloise is the banker's illegitimate daughter, which made her chances of being accepted by society zilch.

Eloise doesn’t care. She's quite content to remain in the country and look after her dad, ride her horse and play the piano. Then along comes the handsome heir to a dukedom, who lavishes attention on Eloise for no apparent reason. Neighbour Harry Benson-Smythe’s suspicions are aroused and he wonders what the devil the rogue thinks he’s playing at. When Eloise’s life is endangered at the hands of her aristocratic admirer, Harry rides to rescue the woman he’s fallen for. But he’s already engaged to someone else—someone socially acceptable in the eyes of his family—so even if he can save Eloise there can be no future for her and Harry, can there…

Forgotten Heiress http://amzn.to/YdOYXS

Let's hear it for this most unlikely of heroines.

Wendy