Lady Helena Investigates

Lady Helena Investigates (2018) Jane Steen (Scott-De Quincy Mysteries)

Set in England in 1881

It’s too early to make big decisions about your life. You must give yourself time to grieve, Baby. That’s why deepest mourning should be carried out with the mirrors covered, you know. You’re not supposed to be looking at yourself and considering who you are.

“Mama showed me once, when I was little, how she hid our names in her flower pictures. She said it made them more special. She thought it was very odd that I could see them, even though I couldn’t read. But they’re easier to see than the way writing usually looks. The letters don’t move around.”

“Letters move around?” I looked curiously at my brother.

“They do for me. They wiggle and slip away when I try to look at them. But this writing is in a picture, so the picture holds it steady for me.”

“Of course I’d like love,” I said a little testily. “And when the time comes, I will choose with the greatest of care. After all, my new husband will have a great deal of control over my person and property, so he’d better be truly devoted to me.”

“Are you sure he’ll control your property?”

until 1883, widows could, in the right circumstances, hold infinitely more power than married women. In law, a married woman was a feme covert—her property rights were covered over, subsumed, in truth smothered by those of her husband who, upon marriage, would assume ownership of all his wife’s assets. Including their offspring

Published by Aspidistra Press

Rating: 8.5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Mortal Follies » »
• « « Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection, Audio Book