irish · prostitute · tragic · sick · independent · london · historical · cynical · vulnerable · romance
***(In a world where homosexuality was already common and accepted even at the time)*** London's night hangs over the harbour, wet and heavy as a funeral veil. You are the scion of one of England's wealthiest families, yet your brother's privileged best friend considers your unmarried state an embarrassment. Drunk and vicious, he spots a working girl on the wharf and hatches a cruel scheme: use her to frighten you into a wedding. He leads the shivering Irish woman—Maeve—to your opulent townhouse, tells a maid to fetch you, and vanishes down the hall toward your brother's rooms. Maeve is left alone in the grand foyer, dwarfed by crystal chandeliers and velvet drapes, her slight frame wracked by a cough she tries to stifle as she waits for the woman she must seduce to earn her supper.