by Jane Steen
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Author’s note
Lady Helena Investigates ends the day after Queen Victoria granted royal assent to the Married Women’s Property Act 1882, which came into force on January 1, 1883. The new law marks Helena’s entry into that rare sector of Victorian society—women with economic power.
There’s a reason why lady sleuth novels so often feature a widow. In the latter part of the nineteenth century and even before the passage of the Act, upper-class widows could end up with greater social freedom than their unmarried peers, because they were less hedged about with rules about chaperonage and behavior (the correct behavior that would make you attractive to the Victorian male and thus rescue you from spinsterhood).
And until 1883, widows could, in the right circumstances, hold infinitely more power than married women. In law, a married woman was a feme covert—her property rights were covered over, subsumed, in truth smothered by those of her husband who, upon marriage, would assume ownership of all his wife’s assets. Including their offspring—a woman who wanted to leave her husband might never see her children again. Of course, a widow’s economic circumstances would depend on how her husband wrote his will . . .
Did you loathe the nickname “Baby?” You were supposed to. It doesn’t just refer to Helena’s position in her family; it’s a symbol of the infantilization of women that became progressively worse as the Victorian age entered its first and second decade. The ideal of Victorian womanhood was childlike, clinging, trembling in breathless adoration of her husband-god. In the twenty-first-century idiom, it was so messed up it doesn’t even compute. And it still influences our thinking to this day because of its persistence well into the twentieth century. Remember The Stepford Wives?
Even Queen Victoria, probably the most powerful woman of the nineteenth century, was her husband Albert’s kleines Weibchen—little wifie. Much as she deplored her long widowhood, it probably saved her from a catastrophic transfer of power to her foreign spouse, which could have had constitutional implications. Read Helen Rappaport’s superb A Magnificent Obsession to learn more about Victoria’s marriage and her withdrawal into seclusion and misery after Albert’s death, a withdrawal I’ve mirrored in Helena’s backstory.
And yet on August 18, 1882, Helena becomes a powerful woman—independently wealthy and fairly near the top of the social scale. The counterpoise to her rise is her mother’s story, which is essentially one of powerlessness, and I invite the reader to consider the poisoner’s art in the context of this imbalance. Poison, it is often said, is (or was) a woman’s weapon—perhaps because they had few others. I plunged the Dowager Countess into madness or dementia—you choose—because there again was that theme of powerlessness and withdrawal from, or loss of, responsibilities.
And then, of course, there are Michael and Thomas—men with disabilities that shake the foundations of their empowered male world. Yes, Helena is the heroine of this series, but the other characters are extremely important to the tale I wish to tell.
Acknowledgments
A novel has many stages as it works its way toward publication, and I’ll try to put these acknowledgments into chronological order. Every bit of help I’ve received, whether I’ve paid for it or not, has been precious to me.
First and foremost, thanks go to my first draft reader and critique partner Katharine Grubb. There aren’t many people I’d entrust a first draft to!
Then there’s my writing group, who have held onto me even though I’ve moved far away: Tonja Brice, Sherri Gallagher, Cathy Harvey, Maureen Lang, Judy Knox, and Myra Wells. Some of them have been there for me since I was a new writer, and I can’t begin to estimate how much encouragement and advice they’ve given me over the years.
As I neared the end of the self-editing process, I received absolutely invaluable help from a group of beta readers located all over the world. They are: Sharyn Bellville, Carol Bisig, Carmela Corvato, Margaret Delahoy, Teri Donaldson, Audra Friend, Karen Green, Joan Greening, Judy Johnsen, Maureen Lang, Julie McCarrin, Susan Meikle, Pamela Pond, Toby Shaw, Shirley Stephens, Tracey Stewart, Andrea Stoeckel, Kit Tunney, and Jacomien Zwemstra. I made many changes for the better on the basis of their sharp-witted and forthright opinions.
No book would feel finished without help from a professional editor and cover designer. Many thanks to Jenny Quinlan of Historical Editorial, who put the essential editorial polish on my words; and Rachel Lawston of Lawston Design, who created the most beautiful cover from my vague ideas.
Special thanks to Ellen Hills for taking over several marketing tasks while I scrambled to get this book out. I couldn’t have asked for a more efficient assistant.
And finally, thanks to my family for leaving me some time to write! And edit. And produce. And market. And generally let my writing business take over my life. I love you all dearly for being there with me every day.
About the Author
The most important fact you need to know about me is that I was (according to my mother, at least) named after Jane Eyre, which to this day remains one of my favorite books. I was clearly doomed to love all things Victorian, and ended up studying both English and French nineteenth-century writers in depth.
This was a pretty good grounding for launching myself into writing novels set in the nineteenth century. I was living in the Chicago suburbs when I began writing the House of Closed Doors series, inspired by a photograph of the long-vanished County Poor Farm in my area.
Now back in my native England, I have the good fortune to live in an idyllic ancient town close to the sea. This location has sparked a new series about an aristocratic family with more secrets than most: The Scott-De Quincy Mysteries.
I write for readers who want a series you can’t put down. I love to blend saga, mystery, adventure, and a touch of romance, set against the background of the real-life issues facing women in the late nineteenth century.
I am a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, the Historical Novel Society, Novelists, Inc., and the Society of Authors.
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Published by Aspidistra Press
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Copyright © 2018 by Jane Steen
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
To Diane,
with love
Archive.