Summer feels very long this year.
All is in a flurry as the household prepares for Louisa’s Season. Marianne keeps pulling me over to gasp over the dresses.
I am not interested.
I am older than Louisa by a year, but I have not had a Season, and I will not have a Season. I promised to explain, and I am determined not to lie to you. So here it is.
My name is Lesley Lydia Barrow. Yes, Barrow as in barrow, the thing you roll about the yard, gathering sticks or branches or brush. The duke’s name is not Barrow, of course. His name is Leslie Charles Buckingham Durand, and he is the third duke of Leicester.
The story about my name is thus. I am the natural daughter of the duke, but when my mother discovered that she was with child, she persuaded a man from her village to claim the child as hi
