The Rose Bargain

We wake the next morning to a flurry of activity in our little cottage. Our cook is in the kitchen below, with an army of maids setting out a lavish breakfast in our dining room. Three lady’s maids, one per room, wake us all and get to work setting our hair in elaborate updos and lacing us into corsets and the fine silk gowns provided by the Crown for our season. Lottie’s face betrays nothing of our secret rendezvous.

Once dressed and fed, we’re shepherded by footmen across the dew-damp lawn to the main palace, where Viscountess Bolingbroke awaits us in a parlor.

“Welcome, girls, to your first etiquette lesson,”

she trills as we sit down in uncomfortable embroidered love seats, our skirts fanning out around us. “These lessons will work in tandem with Her Majesty’s to ensure that whomever Bram picks is prepared for the royal duties that await her.”