Page 3 of The Luckiest Lady in London

Chapter 1

Lord Wrenworth might not have heard of Louisa Cantwell until the spring of 1888, but ever since 1883, years before he’d declared his hand available, his name had sat atop her list of eligible young men.

But while Louisa maintained and frequently revised her list of the rich bachelors of the realm, she rarely thought of the almost mythical Lord Wrenworth. He was an abstract concept, too lofty and perfect to figure into the calculations of a pragmatic girl under no illusion that she was good enough for The Ideal Gentleman.

To begin with, the Cantwells were poor. Louisa, her four sisters, and her mother subsisted on an annuity that had been settled on Mrs. Cantwell long ago. Once Mrs. Cantwell drew her last breath, the Cantwell girls would have little more than the clothes on their backs.

In addition, the family was somewhat scandalous, due to the late Mr. Cantwell having once been a fortune hunter. He was not particularly evil: When he realized that his pretty new wife was nowhere near as wealthy as he had thought, he shrugged and made peace with his failure. But Mrs. Cantwell was not received by her family and old friends as long as her husband lived. And while her daughters were respectable, their respectability was as threadbare as some of Louisa’s petticoats.

And even if a prospective bridegroom could overlook both Louisa’s empty purse and her dubious parentage, he must still deal with the fact that she was something of a bumpkin. She could not paint, play the pianoforte, or speak a foreign language. She had only the faintest grasp of art, history, and literature. And of her penmanship, the less said the better.

Her lack of fortune, pedigree, and accomplishments did not particularly bother Louisa. She was, however, greatly frustrated by the fact that for someone who needed to marry a great deal of money, she was not a singular beauty—as great a handicap as setting out on safari without a working firearm.

Her two elder sisters were both exquisite, but Frederica had not left her room since becoming mildly pockmarked after a bout of smallpox, and Cecilia was determined to kiss only her best friend, Miss Emily Milton.

Of her two younger sisters, Julia was of completely the wrong temperament for the wooing of gentlemen, and Matilda, dear, dear Matilda, was an epileptic and therefore out of the question.

All the other Cantwell sisters were able-bodied, capable of working as governesses or ladies’ companions to support themselves—even Frederica, Louisa was sure, would abandon her reclusive ways if she were actually starving. But Matilda must be looked after at all times. She needed a man of means. Since Matilda could not handle the rigors of a London Season herself, Louisa had to be the one to try.

On the day Louisa realized this, when she was sixteen, she walked three miles from her house so she could despair without anyone seeing her. She gave herself one hour. Then she returned home, opened her notebook, and turned to the last page.

Everything I want.

A small cottage

Books, as many as said cottage can hold

A good telescope

Messier’s Catalogue

A tutor in higher mathematics

When it had seemed that both Frederica and Cecilia might make brilliant matches, Louisa had dreamed of being a happily independent spinster. But dreams were for girls who could afford them—and she was no longer one of them. She crossed out the list and started a new one.

Everything I need to win a man with five thousand pounds a year.

* * *

Louisa would have liked to win that rich man when she was nineteen—Lady Balfour, Mrs. Cantwell’s cousin, had promised to sponsor one of Mrs. Cantwell’s daughters to a Season. But first Lady Balfour had to marry her own daughters; then she had to refrain from going out in public during her mourning period for Sir Augustus, her husband.

When Louisa finally arrived in London, in the spring of 1888, this was how the list looked.

Everything I need to win a man with five seven thousand pounds a year.

(Being impecunious herself, Louisa had quite underestimated the kind of expenses a man with a large income would have, as well as the number of relations who depended on his largesse.)

Bust improvers

Recipes for shiny hair, bright teeth, and soft skin

An understanding of fashion, fabrics, and the styles and cuts of garments that best flatter figure

Familiarity with French, as commonly seen on menus

The ability to dance passably well

Deftness at flattering a gentleman