Adelaide

The carriage jolted over another stone in the road, sending my body forward despite the suffocating tightness of my corset. I could hardly breathe; the boning dug into my ribs with every shallow inhale.

Beside me sat Lady Whitcombe, a distant cousin of my father’s, assigned to escort me to my new “home.”

Her eyes flickered to me every so often, with a look of disdain on her face. She looked as though she would rather be anywhere but here with me.

“My dear,” she said, folding her gloved hands neatly in her lap, “you must sit straighter. A wife ought never to slouch, no matter her circumstances.”

“Circumstances.”...