by Cindy Anstey
Principals could fire at each other or into the air.
After, if they were able, both parties would salute, express regret, and leave the field. The last fatal duel in England was in 1852; the winner was tried for murder.
FUN FACTS OF THE REGENCY PERIOD: MARRIAGE LAWS AND CUSTOMS
Marriages were valid only if they had been advertised by banns (read out in church on three consecutive Sundays) or were sanctioned by a special license; they also had to be recorded in a church register.
Parental consent was required for anyone under twenty-one: even if betrothed at an earlier age, most married in their early twenties.
A “smock” wedding required a bride to be naked (although she usually wore a shift for propriety). It was believed that a bride without clothes or property did not bring debts to the union, either—however, this was a custom, not a law.
The wedding ring was placed on the fourth finger on the left hand because of an old belief that a small artery ran from the finger to the heart.
Weddings took place in the morning by canon law. It decreed that they could be solemnized only between eight AM and noon.
The meal after the ceremony was a wedding breakfast. Elaborate weddings could continue throughout the day, with music, dancing, and games.
A honeymoon did not exist in the Regency period, but the well-off took an extended tour (sometimes called a bridal tour), and they did not go alone, bringing friends and/or family and, naturally, servants.
A Tea Date
with author Cindy Anstey and her editor, Emily Settle
“Getting to Know You (A Little More)”
Emily Settle (ES): What book is on your nightstand now?
Cindy Anstey (CA): I often read more than one book at a time, but Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie, is the one keeping me from turning out the light … right now. A space opera might seem a strange choice, but my taste in books is quite eclectic.
ES: A space opera is never out of place, in my humble opinion. What’s your favorite word?
CA: I love words too much to have a favorite—but today (notice how I’m qualifying) I would choose addlepated, swoony, bombastic, whiffler, and amalgamate. I do overuse excellent, but it’s more of a habit than a favorite.
ES: If you could travel in time, where would you go and what would you do? I mean, based on your writing, I’m actually pretty convinced that you are, in fact, a time traveler, so …
CA: (Laughs) Thank you. I wish I were a time traveler. First-person research would be amazing! I would love to spend a summer getting to know, truly know, Jane Austen. I would sit at her feet and listen as she explained her society and culture, her writing methods, and her life philosophy. (I specify the summer because I would freeze without central heat in the winter, and all those unwashed bodies in closed, smoky rooms would be rather (gag) stinky to the twenty-first-century nose.)
ES: What was the most fascinating or funniest thing you discovered while doing research for Duels & Deception?
CA: I discovered a little-known fact that doesn’t really play in the book but I have to use sometime. When a gentleman married, there was no assumption that his bachelor friends would be accepted into his new life. Only if the friend(s) were invited to meet the bride (at the wedding or a dinner or invited to “call”) would the relationship continue as it was. Otherwise, the boys would only meet at the club, or races, etc.; but if they crossed paths while out, they would pretend to not know one another, so as not to cause the bride discomfort.
ES: I would read that book!
“The Swoon Reads Experience (Continues!)”
ES: What’s your favorite thing about being a Swoon Reads author so far?
CA: I thrive on positivity, and so I would have to say that my favorite aspect of being a Swoon Reads author is the enthusiasm that permeates everything from the team to the other authors to the readers.
ES: How has the Swoon Reads community affected your experiences as an author?
CA: I think every author suffers from self-doubt to some degree, but the Swoon Reads community offers such great support that it crowds out the doubts and energizes my creativity. It spurs me on!
ES: Did the publication of Love, Lies and Spies change your life?
CA: Absolutely! You couldn’t get better affirmation for all those hours spent at the computer. I walk much taller now—metaphorically speaking. Better still, my husband has taken over the cooking so that I can keep writing—which is fantastic because he always was the better cook.
ES: Aw, that’s so sweet. And we appreciate his efforts so you can keep writing, too! Do you have any advice for aspiring authors on the site?
CA: There is no fast track to learning how to write well, but every word, sentence, and chapter that you type is a step closer to that ultimate goal. So, keep at it. Write and read … repeat.
“The Writing Life”
ES: Where did you get the inspiration for Duels & Deception?
CA: At any given time, I have five or six plots running around in my head. It is soooo hard to remember the seed of inspiration. It usually springs from research; and if pressed, I would likely attribute learning the rules of honor in regard to duels as being the beginning. It was hard to fathom the foolishness of placing your life on the line for something as minor as an insult.
ES: What’s your process? Are you an outliner or do you just start at the beginning and make it up as you go?
CA: I am absolutely an outliner. However, even as I write out the plot, I know that the characters will alter the plan. I adjust as often as I need; it’s always a better story if I give the characters free rein. I tried to wing it one time and wrote myself into a corner.
ES: What do you want readers to remember about your books?
CA: Do I get a list?… I would hope that my books have made the time period come alive, that it makes the readers want to explore the Regency era. But more important, I would hope that the readers have found my books uplifting and funny—a happy escape from life’s stress, even if only for a short time.
Duels & Deception
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How would you characterize the relationship between Lydia and her female relatives? How do you think they have affected her character?
2. To what extent do you feel Lydia’s challenges in gaining control of her family farm are due to her youth and which aspects are due to her gender?
3. What drives Robert? What are his motivations to become a lawyer, and how does that change throughout the book?
4. How important are Lydia’s friends, Cora and Shelley, to the story? How significant is the role of female friendship to Lydia?
5. Robert and Cassidy seem to have very different natures, but they also have a tight bond. How important was this to your understanding of Robert?
6. Lydia’s kidnapping was designed to ruin her reputation. It is implied that Lydia’s good name is her worth. Do you feel that society still has the same expectation of young women?
7. The characters are skeptical about the utility of Scotland Yard. Do you think that Burt Warner has redeemed this institution?
8. Who did you first suspect was the culprit behind the plot against Lydia? When the villain’s identity was revealed, how did it change your perception of the book?
9. Were you surprised that after Lydia and Robert discussed the challenges to their communication, they both still operated as individuals trying to save the other at the duel? How do you think this reflects real relationships?
10. Do you like Lydia’s proposal to Robert? Do you feel, considering their characters and situations, that this was realistic?
In which plans for a Season without romance are unapologetically foiled.
In this hilarious homage to Jane Austen, a lady with a penchant for trouble finds a handsome spy much more than merely tolerable.
CHAPTER
1
In which a young lady clinging to a cliff will eventually accept anyone’s help
“Another scrape. This will definitely give Aunt apoplexy.”
Juliana hugged the cliff ever closer and tipped her head slightly so that she could glance over her shoulder. Her high-waisted ivory dress was deeply soiled across her right hip, where she had slid across the earth as she dropped over the edge.
Juliana shifted slowly and glanced over her other shoulder. Fortunately, the left side showed no signs of distress, and her lilac sarcenet spencer could be brushed off easily. She would do it now were it not for the fact that her hands were engaged, holding tightly to the tangle of roots that kept her from falling off the tiny ledge.
Juliana continued to scrutinize the damage to her wardrobe with regret, not for herself so much as for her aunt, who seemed to deem such matters of great importance. Unfortunately, her eyes wandered down to her shoes. Just beyond them yawned an abyss. It was all too apparent how far above the crashing waves of the English Channel she was—and how very small the ledge.
Despite squishing her toes into the rock face as tightly as possible, Juliana’s heels were only just barely accommodated by the jutting amalgamate. The occasional skitter and plop of eroding rocks diving into the depths of the brackish water did nothing to calm her racing heart.
Juliana swallowed convulsively. “Most embarrassing.” She shivered despite a warm April breeze. “I shall be considered completely beyond the pale if I am dashed upon the rocks. Aunt will be so uncomfortable. Most inconsiderate of me.”
A small shower of sandy pebbles rained down on Juliana’s flowery bonnet. She shook the dust from her eyes and listened. She thought she had heard a voice.
Please, she prayed, let it be a farmer or a tradesman, someone not of the gentry. No one who would feel obligated to report back to Grays Hill Park. No gentlemen, please.
“Hello?” she called out. Juliana craned her neck upward, trying to see beyond the roots and accumulated thatch at the cliff’s edge.
A head appeared. A rather handsome head. He had dark, almost black, hair and clear blue eyes and, if one were to notice such things at a time like this, a friendly, lopsided smile.
“Need some assistance?” the head asked with a hint of sarcasm and the tone of a …
“Are you a gentleman?” Juliana inquired politely.
The head looked startled, frowned slightly, and then raised an eyebrow before answering. “Yes, indeed, I am—”
“Please, I do not wish to be rescued by a gentleman. Could you find a farmer or a shopkeep—anyone not of the gentry—and then do me the great favor of forgetting you saw me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I do not want to be rude, but this is a most embarrassing predicament—”
“I would probably use the word dangerous instead.”
“Yes, well, you would, being a man. But I, on the other hand, being a young woman doing her best not to call attention to herself and bring shame upon her family, would call it otherwise.”
“Embarrassing?”
“Oh, most definitely. First, I should not have gone out in the carriage alone. Carrie was supposed to come with me, but we quarreled, you see, and I got into a snit, and—” Juliana stopped herself. She was beginning to prattle; it must be the effects of the sun. “Second, if I had not been watching the swallows instead of the road, I would have seen the hole before my wheel decided to explore its depths—very scatterbrained of me. And third, if I return home, soiled and in the company of a gentleman with no acquaintance to the family, I will be returned to Hartwell forthwith in shame. All possibility of a Season and trip to London will be gone completely.”
“Well, that is quite an embarrassing list. I do see the problem.”
“Is there someone down there?” another voice asked.
The head with the blue eyes disappeared, but Juliana could hear a muffled conversation.
“Yes, but she does not want to be rescued by us. She says she needs a farmer.”
“What?”
Juliana leaned back slightly to see if she could catch a glimpse of the other gentleman, but that dislodged a cloud of dirt.
“Achoo.”
“Bless you,” one of the voices called from above before continuing the conversation. “Yes, it seems that we are not the sort—”
Juliana’s nose began to itch again. She scrunched it up and then wiggled it, trying to stop another burst. To no avail. “Achoo.” This time her left hand jerked with the force of the exhaled air and broke several of the roots to which she was clinging. Slowly, they began to unravel, lengthening and shifting Juliana away from the cliff’s side, out into the air.
“Oh no.” She let go of that handful and reached back toward the rocks for another, hopefully stronger, group of roots. But she was not so lucky. Twice more she grabbed, praying that the tangle in her right hand would not get the same idea.
Just as she had decided the situation was now possibly more dangerous than embarrassing, a hand grabbed her flailing wrist. Relief flooded through her, and her racing heart slowed just a touch.
“Give me your other arm.”
“I beg your pardon? You cannot expect me to let go.”
“Well, if I am to pull you up, you are going to have to.”
“Oh dear, oh dear. I really do not want to.”
“I understand completely. But I am afraid we have no length of rope, no farmer is in sight, and your predicament seems to be proceeding into the realm of peril. Not to worry, though. I have this arm firmly in my grasp, my feet are being held—sat upon, to be exact, so I will not topple over—and all that is left for you to do is to let go. I will grab your other arm, you will close your eyes, and up you will come. Back onto terra firma.”
“This is terra firma.” Juliana pointed with her nose to the rugged cliff wall.
“Yes, but I doubt very much that you want to stay there.”
“I like the idea of dangling in the air so much less.”
The head nodded sympathetically. “Life is full of these trials, I am afraid.”
“They seem to follow me around. I am a magnet for trouble.”
“That is sad news. However, perhaps it would be best to discuss your penchant for interesting situations when we are on the same ground level—say, up here. It would make the discussion much easier to conduct.”
“In other words, I should stop dillydallying.”
“Exactly so.”
“I really do not want to do this.”
“I understand.”
Juliana took a deep breath. “I am only eighteen, you know.”
“I did not.”
“That is much too young to die, do you not think?”
“I quite agree, which is why we are going to do everything we can to help you make it to nineteen.”
“All right, I will do it.”
“Brave girl.”
Juliana felt anything but brave. Her knees were starting to wobble and her hands had decided to shake. She took several deep breaths, counted to three in her head, and then let go.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cindy Anstey spends her days painting with words, flowers, threads, and watercolors. Whenever not sitting at the computer, she can be found—or rather, not found—traveling near and far. After many years living as an expat in Singapore, Memphis, and Belgium, Cindy now resides with her husband and their energetic chocolate Labrador, Chester, in Nova Scotia, Canada. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Swoonworthy Extras
Love, Lies and Spies Excerpt
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Cynthia Ann Anstey. Excerpt from Love, Lies and Spies copyright © 2016 by Cynthia Ann Anstey.
A Swoon Reads Book
An imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
swoonreads.com
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Anstey, Cindy, author.
Title: Duels & deception / Cindy Anstey.
Description: First edition.|New York: Swoon Reads, 2017.|Summary: In 1800s London, a young heiress and her lawyer are caught up in a kidnapping plot to steal her fortune, but as their investigation delves deeper and their affections for each other grow, Lydia starts to wonder what she truly wants.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029131 (print)|LCCN 2016043439 (ebook)|ISBN 9781250119094 (pbk.)|ISBN 9781250119087 (Ebook)
Subjects:|CYAC: Heiresses—Fiction.|Kidnapping—Fiction.|Love—Fiction.|London (England)—History—19th century—Fiction.|Great Britain—History—1789–1820—Fiction.