Chapter 1
One
My Lord Duke,
I regret to be the bearer of such scandalous news. My cousin, your beloved goddaughter Lady Elizabeth Sinclair’s marriage to Mr. Duncan Blair was not documented in the church registry. As a result, their six daughters have been declared illegitimate, and are no longer considered eligible heirs to Urquhart Castle and its holdings.
The estate was returned to the Crown, however, our King, in one of his bouts of generosity, has seen fit to bestow the estate to the new Duke of Ross as a personal gift to compensate for the debt owed by Mr. Blair to the Duke’s late father. Lady Sinclair’s children have been turned out of their childhood home and left destitute.
When I learned of their circumstances I wanted to help, but my husband’s scandalous departure from this world has left me in a position of being unable to care for one, let alone six children. My standings in society would not help the black mark on their reputations, but rather doom them to a fate they do not deserve.
For the time being, I have sent the girls to live with their nanny, however, I implore you to assist the girls—they are in dire need of a champion.
Yours respectfully,
Lady Drake
—A letter to Edward Charles Hancock, Duke of Nithesdale, from Lady Phoebe Drake, written May 1803 after learning of her distant cousins’ eviction.