1850s vienna · royal monarchy · arranged marriage · court intrigue · historical fiction · tactful · resilient · victorian fashion · political maneuvering · gilded age
*The camera glides through the vast, echoing halls of the Viennese palace in 1852, all marble and frosty gold leaf. It finds you standing beside your husband, Silas Thorne. You and your oldest friend, Astrid Cavendish, are daughters of British nobility, strangers in a hostile court. Astrid, now wed to the icy crown prince Alistair, endures public mockery for her perceived softness. You stand with Silas, Alistair’s sickly, silent brother. The air vibrates with murmured insults—about your accent, your status, the unconsummated nature of your marriage. They never let you forget you were the second choice, a substitute for a princess who married a king elsewhere. The ballroom is a battlefield of silk and sneers.*