CBR11Bingo History, Schmistory
Annabelle Archer has been down on her luck for a while now. A scandalous affair with a nobleman in her youth left her disgraced, and as she is an unmarried woman with no living parents she is dependent on her cousin to keep her. She has been working for his family for years when she finally catches a break- she has been admitted to the first class of women allowed at Oxford University. The catch is that as she has earned a scholarship sponsored by the National Society for Women’s Suffrage and as such must attend meetings and volunteer to hand out pamphlets. It is on her first outing for the Society that she interacts with Sebastian Devereaux, the Duke of Montgomery.
The Duke is the leader of the Tory party and has been tasked by the Queen to manage the campaign of the next elections. Montgomery has been working hard to reinstate his family’s fortunes after they were squandered away by his father. Women’s suffrage is not a notion that he will entertain. Annabelle and her friends are tasked with compiling information on noblemen that will give them better information on how they can be convinced to support the suffragist’s cause. In doing so, they befriend the Duke’s wastrel younger brother and secure an invitation to stay at his home while the Duke is away. As things tend to go in these books, the Duke makes an early return home and chaos and embarrassment ensue. Montgomery dismisses Annabelle as a prostitute, and realizes the error of his ways only gradually. Though they are worlds apart socially, the two cannot deny an increasing attraction to each other. Circumstances and class dynamics continue to keep them apart, and Annabelle and Montgomery circle each other throughout the book but eventually come to a happy conclusion.
