Miss Lucy Clinton ought to have had nothing to worry about in this life.
She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her grandfather was a marquess, her father a government official, and her maternal grandfather had left her a fortune in bank shares.
But she was illegitimate!
She had no mother, and had never known who she was.
Miss Lucy was spoiled rotten by her father.
She was willful, exceptionally beautiful, and ill-tempered.
She hated anyone who talked behind her back about her birth.
She had the nerve to confront them, trade insults, and make a scene.
Sharp-tongued, she was nothing like the demure young woman this era expected her to be.
Apart from that, the person Miss Lucy hated most was her father's secretary.
The son of a northern industrial tycoon!
What gave him the right to stand beside her, keep an eye on her, and make sure she did her lessons?
Always smiling, impeccably handsome, and never losing his temper no matter how much trouble she gave him.
What a hypocrite!
She was arrogant and obsessed with class distinctions, and she was prejudiced against him.
Her instincts were right.
Mr. Demister was an out-and-out ambitious man, a master of disguise who was determined to climb the ladder and make his way into British politics.
He was so attentive to her only because she was her father's daughter.
He never expected to fall for this little girl.
*
At last, Miss Lucy learned the truth about her birth.
Her first love, who had gone bankrupt back then, was actually her half-brother, sharing the same mother.
She crouched beneath the gallery and burst into tears.
Just then, someone offered her a handkerchief. She looked up at a handsome man with long limbs, black hair, and brown eyes.
"Get away from me!"
She broke down and blurted out, "I fell in love with you! Demister, how awful! I'm going to end up living a dreadful life!"
He sat down beside her. "Miss Clinton, in fact, my father earns sixty thousand pounds a year. I don't think life will be too dreadful."
"But I'll have to live in Manchester, surrounded by clanking machines and black smoke. Good heavens."
"We can live in London, and in Paris, too."
"Fine, then." She sniffled. "I'll marry you, though I suppose I have no choice."
"Demister, how long have we known each other?"
"Seven years, my dear miss."
*
The heroine keeps getting into trouble, and the hero follows behind her to clean up the mess. The two of them are always at each other's throats.
The story begins in 1830.
The heroine puts herself above all, but is also very conscious of class distinctions, which fits the social setting of the time.
Theme: Understanding one another
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