The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows - Olivia Waite Page 0,124
to the public’s eye the timing was something more suspicious than mere coincidence could account for.
All the contempt the people had expressed for her behavior vanished, and they once again rioted in her support.
To keep the Melliton folk orderly, Mr. Oliver had given a painfully patriotic sermon about kings and piety and respect for the crown—only to be shaken by the news that King George had not only gone to visit the Catholics in Ireland, with an eye toward their emancipation—but that George had at the same time enjoyed a cheery reunion with his mistress, Lady Coyningham, whose husband had recently been elevated to the Privy Council in return for the man’s great kindness in overlooking adultery.
It was a great blow for a simple country vicar to take all at once, and Penelope thought he would be some time in recovering from it.
He would have no support from his sister: Viscount and Lady Summerville had let Abington Hall and were sparing expenses by moving in with his lordship’s brother at his estate in Wessex. The Mendacity Society had rather flagged without its foundress—and without the support of the cash earned from the sale of Isabella’s statues. The new Abington Hall tenant was set to move in at the end of the month, and was already the subject of several unlikely rumors and base speculations.
Harry and John had sailed off to the southern whaling grounds, with promises to write when next they made landfall.
Mrs. Biswas finished reading the description of the funeral, and the usual arguments broke out in the usual corners. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Kitt had their heads close together, reading over some piece about the navy. The new ballad singer began tuning her guitar, in preparation for a performance that would include Mrs. Turner’s latest ballads and one or two still-popular works by the Widow Wasp.
Mr. Painter could be heard from the far side of the room, complaining as always that Melliton was growing too rude, too rough, and showed less and less respect for the law.
“Good thing, too,” Agatha muttered, making Penelope snort into her ale.
Acknowledgments
In writing this book I threw myself headlong into the work of Eva Crane, a quantum mathematician turned legendary beekeeper whose The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting has been an invaluable resource and a perpetual flood of inspiration.
Publishing is volatile at the best of times, but never more so than the past few months. I would like to send all my love and gratitude to the writers, editors, publicists, illustrators, booksellers, and librarians who have fought to keep making stories in times when it feels we need them more desperately than ever.
The Hellion’s Waltz
The next breathtaking romance in Olivia Waite’s Feminine Pursuits series,
THE HELLION’S WALTZ
will be available from Avon Impulse
Summer 2021
About the Author
OLIVIA WAITE is a former bookseller and Jeopardy! champion who writes historical romance, fantasy, science fiction, and essays. She is the “Kissing Books” columnist for the Seattle Review of Books, where she reviews romance both new and old with an emphasis on insightful criticism and genre history. She lives in Seattle with her husband and their stalwart mini-dachshund.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Olivia Waite
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.