The Inconvenient Sister Chapter 1 Part 5

 Beatrice had never been so angry before in her life. She was so upset with the man in Marcus’ library that Emily was able to pull her through the hallway, up the two flights of stairs, and into her room before she could slow down her thoughts enough to talk. She flounced on her white, French-styled bed with its white satin tufted headboard framed in teal damask curtains. As she sank into the downy mattress with her skirts flaring around her, she flung herself backward next to her teal-colored, satin pillows. Then she released all her pent-up anger in a roar of frustration.

“That man is the most infuriating, ignorant—”

“—Beatrice!” the breath hissed through Emily’s teeth, pulling Beatrice out of her tirade. “Since father died, I have focused my entire life on giving you a chance to achieve your dreams. However, you are doing everything you can to ruin any hope you could have of marrying a suitable husband.”

“I don’t understand what you mean. Marriage is not one of my dreams. My dream is to be a journalist and fight social injustice. Talking to members of Parliament is just a first step along that path.”

“Talking?” Emily’s eyebrow shot upward. “Actually, you were shouting so loudly that I am sure every servant in our house and the next heard you. I interrupted your tirade because I feared you would wake baby Pamela. Oh, Beatrice!” Emily groaned and walked over to collapse on the white satin settee with a teal-fern, embroidered design. “You have no idea how London society works. If you cannot learn to get along in it, you will find yourself sifted to the bottom.”

Beatrice frowned. “Since Parliament is full of old, fusty men and their old, fusty ideas, it should be expected that I will disagree with them occasionally. I don’t care about ‘London society,’ so there is no need for me to attempt to join it. Being at the bottom will only bring me closer to the poor, who are the only people for whom I care.”

“And can any of those poor people address Parliament or a member of it? Could a street urchin walk up to the King and say, ‘Excuse me, Your Highness, but life is a little hard. I have some great ideas to change it.’ No. He could not approach the King or Parliament because of his low status.

“If you allow yourself to become shunned by society, you will never make a difference in this world. The people to whom you must encourage to change things will not give you the opportunity to speak with them. Do you want that?”

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The Inconvenient Sister Chapter 1 Part 4

 Beatrice’s face turned bright red, and he could almost feel the sparks in her sapphire eyes strike out at him. Dante was sure Lord Duval’s mouth hung open. Acutely aware of his position in society, he normally kept his tongue in check, but something about this woman agitated him to the point he could not contain the set down. At that moment, the door to the library burst open, rattling some books on the shelves as another woman burst into the room.

“Beatrice!” she cried, exasperated.

Dante’s eyes continued to war with Beatrice’s as they both disregarded the interruption. Although not a word had been said by either of them for half a minute, his breathing was still quick as if he had just finished racing his bays. The words between them were bitter, but for some reason Dante could not prevent himself from focusing on her rosy, pouting lips.

“What are you doing?!” The feminine voice continued to scold in the background.

Lord Duval’s new wife appeared beside Beatrice, causing Dante to break contact with the young lady out of politeness toward her older sister.

“Oh, my! Please forgive my sister—” Lady Berkshire gave a curtsy and clamped her hand onto the girl’s wrist in one smooth gesture.

Dante raised his hand and stopped her apology. “Think nothing of it. We were all young once,” he shot at the younger sister. “It has not been so long for me that I have forgotten my own childhood follies.” He allowed himself one final look at the stormy girl and then dismissed her. He could not remember any time in his life when so much chaos had happened around him in such a short time. Returning to Lord Duval, he said, “Before we were so rudely interrupted, I believe we were discussing the gin laws, and you were explaining where you came up with your ingenious idea.”

Lord Duval, being a man of good breeding, looked as if his ship were sunk, but he did his best to save the situation.

Dante did not watch as Lady Berkshire pulled her sister out of the room, but he could feel Beatrice’s eyes on him until the door closed with a quiet click. Inside, he felt unsettled. Half of him longed for her to come back and enliven the conversation again. The other, more sensible half chided his folly.

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The Inconvenient Sister Chapter 1 Part 3

 “Workhouses!?!” the young woman’s voice raised a notch as she turned and focused her ire upon him. “How can you call those factories of death an option? Have you ever been to one? Have you ever worked for those slave masters running them?”

With a smirk, Dante replied, “Have you?” At this, he allowed his eyes to travel down the spotless mauve dress that was of the latest fashion with its over-wide sleeves and lace trim. It parted on top to reveal a light pink floral bodice, came together at the girl’s waist, and then parted again, revealing her deep green petticoat. “You don’t look as if you have visited one today. And although your manners suggest otherwise, I would guess that you have never in your life traveled to the areas of London that house them.”

Beatrice gasped and took a step toward him. “How dare you! I am sure that, despite the fact I am probably young enough to be your daughter, I have visited more of the sections of London in need of Parliament’s help than you.”

Dante’s eyes grew wide. The way this termagant said it, one would think he already had a foot in the grave.

“Beatrice! Shame on you!” Lord Duval stood and slammed his right hand down on the large oaken desk next to him, nearly toppling the globe.

Again, this slip of a girl seemed to best Dante. He longed for a mirror to examine his face for wrinkles but knew that was out of the question. He also would not have a lower peer defending him. He could fight his own battles.

“Well, if that is the case, miss,” he began with slitted eyes, “I must beg your apology. I took you to be a woman old enough to be out. However, if you were, as you say, young enough to be my child, it would mean you are still in the schoolroom. I am surprised your nursemaid would allow an eight-year old to go wandering around the house, interrupting important meetings. In that case, however, I admit that I was in the wrong. As a mature adult, I should have kept my thoughts to myself. After all, it is impossible to argue with children.”

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The Inconvenient Sister Chapter 1 Part 2

 “Oh, Marcus! You must do something about it! There are babies lying dead in the ditch near Fleet!”

“Beatrice! I am in the middle of a very important meeting right now with the–” Marcus chided as he flashed the Duke an apologetic glance.

“—I am very pleased to meet you, sir,” Beatrice interrupted as she dropped a hurried curtsy without taking her eyes off Lord Duval or truly acknowledging the Duke, “but whatever you are discussing is not as important as the fact that poor infants are being abandoned and dying from exposure. In fact,” she suddenly turned on the Duke as if she expected something of him, “if you are one of my brother-in-law’s cohorts in Parliament, it is imperative that you also are made aware of this tragedy so you, too, can aid him in resolving it, sir.”

Dante Francis Seymour Sackville, the Duke of Dorset, almost choked on his tea when the firebrand used “sir” for a second time. Never in his twenty-six years had he been so passed over and slighted. Had he previously mused that such a cut might occur in his lifetime, never would he have imagined that the insult would come from such a captivating agitator. He, after all, was the one noted as being a “good catch” on the marriage mart and an “eternal bachelor.”

Dismayingly, when her gaze had shifted to him as she concluded her tirade, he found himself stifling a foolish grin. There was something about her intelligent eyes that drew him to her. Most young women were quite insipid–their interests lay solely in dresses and balls. This woman apparently cared more for His Majesty’s subjects. Perhaps that is why she did not fret over titles or stray hairs. He found it intriguing and repulsing at the same time.

“Are you listening to me, sir?” The question pulled Dante’s attention away from thoughts of Beatrice’s flaming eyes and what they held, but before he could respond in his more carefully thought-out manner, she had dismissed him with an impertinent sigh and returned to Marcus with her tirade.

Again, the Duke found himself in a new position. He could not remember a single person ever completely dismissing him so easily. The loss of title was a faux pas, but the embarrassment would be on her when she discovered it. However, being ignored pricked his pride deeply. He had been pampered from childhood into believing he was a deft cull even without the title. Most women tended to reinforce this view. He found it disconcerting that this young woman, who had dared to address him without a proper introduction, did not give him a second glance.

“… And I insist Parliament do something about it!”

“Well, my dear,” Dante said, entering the conversation ready to do battle before Marcus could reply, “Parliament has already done something about it. We have plenty of workhouses scattered throughout the city. If these women truly cared for their infants and had no other recourse, they could easily apply to one and receive health care, gainful employment, care and schooling for the child, and three balanced meals each day.” Dante leaned back in his chair to study his opponent, crossing his arms.

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The Inconvenient Sister Chapter 1 Part 1

Chapter 1

1742
London

“Let’s just say, Your Grace, that I think this is a perfect way to move us out of our gin crisis, but it will have to be carefully executed,” Lord Duval, Earl of Berkshire said, smiling as he leaned back in the beige upholstered chair.

The Duke of Dorset appreciated that Lord Duval had done everything possible to make his presentation effective, including holding it in his cozy-but-strictly-business library. A low fire burned on the hearth between the Duke’s chair and the matching one in which Lord Duval sat. To Lord Duval’s right, his desk was clear except for a single candlestick, a small globe, and his writing set. The door leading to the rest of the London townhouse was firmly shut in front of both of them.

“I have to agree,” the Duke replied with the corner of his lip slightly curling upward. “Offering the populace tea as an alternative is ingenious. I also agree that simply lowering the current tax on tea from 119% to only 12.5% will encourage even the commoners to purchase it. Did you come up with this all by yourself, or did you work on it with others in Parliament?” The Duke couldn’t help glancing at the well-stocked bookshelves surrounding them. Lord Duval was a knowledgeable, well-read man—something hard to find among those who had taken their seat in Parliament at a younger age like the two of them had done. He leaned forward and raised a delicately decorated porcelain cup to his strong lips for a sip of the very thing they were discussing.

The Duke kept his black hair like he kept his own estate–neat and well-organized. Unlike other men, who curled the hair on the sides of their face, he tied all his back in a long braid to keep it tidy during any activity he might choose to do on a whim. Even so, the Duke was not prone to whims. That Lord Duval wore his hair neatly in a similar style only made the Earl rise slightly higher in the Duke’s esteem.

When the Duke had first arrived at Lord Duval's townhouse, he had been afraid the Earl would present an idea about yet another tax on gin to fix Britain’s current drinking problem among the masses. It seemed someone approached him nearly every day with that same idea. However, in his opinion as a young history buff, the past had shown that taxes were not the answer. In fact, he had only agreed to meet because Lord Duval had been so helpful on a bill he had proposed last year. The Duke felt that he could not refuse to at least hear the Earl’s idea. He was charmed that this meeting he felt obliged to attend turned to one of pleasure with a fresh idea that had merit. Instead of taxing gin, they would subsidize tea. It would take a while for Parliament to accept a plan to lower taxes and lose any subsequent income from them while increasing money spent to subsidize something, but the government would have to make it up somewhere else. The more the commoners consumed gin, the less work they accomplished and the more the economy suffered.

“I must confess: I am only partially responsible for this plan,” Lord Duval began with a tinge of pride in his voice. “My new sister-in-law—”

A loud commotion began in the hallway and ended with a young lady of perhaps eighteen bursting through the door and interrupting the conversation. Her topaz-colored hair was drifting menacingly out of its cap like a darkening storm cloud, while her blue eyes flashed lightning. The Duke was slightly shocked to see a woman in such disarray and passion, but at the same time, he felt an odd pang of attraction that he quickly brushed aside as mere surprise.

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Preview The Inconvenient Sister

Starting Wednesday, we will be posting a sneak peak at the entire first chapter of The Inconvenient Sister. You will get to read a little bit of the book each day for the next eight days on here FREE!

The Inconvenient Sister is an inspirational historical romance set in 1742 England. It is the second in the Situations of Inconvenience Series.

It will be on sale on Amazon Monday, September 15, 2025. 

Beatrice

Beatrice is the ever impetuous younger sister. She frequently acts without thinking and sees no reason to control her actions. As a budding reporter, she constantly is looking for her next story, and she wants to improve the situation of the poor.

Beatrice had her own reasons for wanting to go to London during the season, but none of them involve finding a husband. She believes she can find a job as a journalist, but ends up working as an inker in a print shop. She also chooses to look at London's poor and is outspoken about her desire to change things for them. She purchases from street vendors and helps those who cross her path if she can.

Because of her work, Beatrice is often seen in her working dress with ink stains on her hands. She is also on the lookout for that one bit of news that might encourage her employers to accept one of the articles she writes for publication in their magazine.

Parents: Lady Radford;  Sir Henry Radford

Siblings: Esther;  Judith;  Emily 

Husband: Dante

Children: Dinah; Hannah