He turned to whisk Bianca out to the center of the ballroom, where several couples were preparing to dance. More than a few sets of eyes followed them, and the stodgier of the wedding guests murmured in horror at the pairing. Jack was far from an aristocrat, after all, and Bianca should never have stooped to set her sights so low.
“How do your parents feel about that pairing?” Lady Tavistock asked, summing the whole thing up with the politest question possible.
“They’ll never allow it,” Cece answered with a regretful sigh. “Even though they both know how deeply in love Bianca is.”
“Love?” Rupert tried not to scoff. “I’m not sure that’s what I’d call it.”
“It’s love,” Cece corrected him with absolute certainty. He glanced at her to find her smiling at him. “Believe me, I know what love is.”
“And thanks to you, I know now as well.” In spite of the crowd around them, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her lightly. He would have kissed her scandalously, but it seemed a shame to do so with poor Fergus looking on, unable to do the same to Lady Tavistock, which Rupert had a feeling he wanted to do. “Would you care to dance, my adorable wife?”
“Absolutely,” Cece answered mischievously, glancing past his shoulder. “Is Reese available.”
Rupert slapped her hand playfully, then raised it to his lips for a kiss. “Dance with your friend some other time. Right now, it’s your husband who wants you.”
She laughed and slid easily into his arms. “And I want you,” she said. “I have a delicious feeling that I always will.”
* * *
Author’s Note: Irish Home Rule was the number one political conundrum of the last decades of the nineteenth century. I consumed hours of debate. It polarized opinions. Spoiler alert: It split the Liberal Party right down the middle, leading to the entire party’s eventual demise. Proponents of Home Rule would often filibuster Parliament to the point where no other business could be conducted until their cause was heard.
And what was the cause? After the disastrous 1870s, a time that was starkly reminiscent of the catastrophic famine of the 1840s in Ireland, and the pitiful response by the English government, the Irish had had enough. They wanted independence, and in the meantime, they wanted their own parliament and control of their own affairs. The home rule experiment had worked brilliantly in Canada, and the Irish wanted to duplicate it.
But the British fought tooth and nail against the idea. As you may have been able to tell from this story, part of the resistance was a deeply-held belief that if Parliament and the crown showed any sign of “weakness” by giving up control of their closest colony, every other part of the Empire would see and rebel. Loyalists genuinely believed that granting the Irish the right to rule themselves would be the first crack in the complete collapse of everything they held dear. The other major factor in refusing to allow the Irish any independence at all was racism, pure and simple. The Irish were viewed by many as inferior animals, incapable of rational thought of self-governance.
The debate raged for decades and wasn’t truly settled until the Irish War of Independence, which ended in 1921. But as you will see in the rest of the May Flowers series, The Irish Question impacted almost every aspect of politics and life in the 1880s and beyond.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Rupert and Cece’s story. Whew! They’re together at last! But what kind of trouble will Bianca get into with Jack Craig? There’s no way theirs will be a normal love story. In fact, it’s impossible for the daughter of an earl and a man born in a brothel to marry at all. But Bianca isn’t about to listen to that! Will she and Jack find a way to be together? And will that way spell ruin for both of them? Find out in It’s Only a Scandal if You’re Caught, available for pre-order now!
And if you’d like to know more about the twisted and complicated love story between Cece’s father, Lord Malcolm Campbell, and Rupert’s mother, Lady Katya, be sure to check out April Seduction, part of The Silver Foxes of Westminster series!
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About the Author
I hope you have enjoyed A Lady’s First Scandal. If you’d like to be the first to learn about when new books in the series come out and more, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/cbaVMH And remember, Read it, Review it, Share it! For a complete list of works by Merry Farmer with links, please visit http://wp.me/P5ttjb-14F.
Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her cats, Torpedo, her grumpy old man, and Justine, her hyperactive new baby. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have reached the Top 100 at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble, and have been named finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.
Acknowledgments
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my awesome beta-readers, Caroline Lee and Jolene Stewart, for their suggestions and advice. And double thanks to Julie Tague, for being a truly excellent editor and assistant!
Click here for a complete list of other works by Merry Farmer.
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