Comes around the Yuletide season – there are some that depart from Town for house-parties in the country, or have family celebrations. It is a time for remembering distant friends. Not all can give themselves up to frolic and frivolity, and not all find pleasure in these revels. While even in the midst of pleasures, business and contrivances are put upon hand.

The Season commences, with all its bustle. Some find themselves bereft, however temporarily, of accustomed companions. Others look forward not merely to marital unions but to joining familial circles. Meanwhile, various contrivances are upon hand: although many of these have benign intentions, there are also more malignant plots in train.

Several problems persist in troubling the circle around Clorinda, Dowager Marchioness of Bexbury. It is feared that there may be further adverse repercussions from the Hackwold Incident, while Baron Fendersham continues to linger in Town although Lady Wauderkell has taken retreat in a convent. New acquaintances are drawn into the circle, and new contacts flourish. Certain difficulties are unexpectedly resolved, while unanticipated trials arise.

Apologia for my temerity in writing this memoir: I shall not say how, and why, at the age of 15 I became the mistress of the Earl of Craven, because I never had the kind of opportunities that Harriette Wilson wast’d.However, I enjoy’d the patronage of a number of generous suitors, and in particular, at the age of 27 I fell in with a wealthy Northern ironmaster, whose sound financial advice even more than his generosity ensur’d me the means for comfortable living without the need for...

There are numerous stories and episodes among Clorinda Cathcart, later Lady Bexbury’s, circle of friends and acquaintances, and in her household, that might be related. These are just a few of them.

A Parliamentary election causes considerable upheaval to the summer plans of Society in general, and of Clorinda and her circle. But besides any choices concerning the government of the nation, several of them find that they have to make decisions touching on more personal matters.

Eliza Ferraby, farmer’s daughter, wife and helpmeet to prosperous ironmaster Josiah Ferraby, has seen a lot of changes in her life already. She did not ever anticipate falling in love herself with Clorinda Cathcart, the mistress she urged Josiah to take when her own state of health precluded marital relations. Nor did she expect to move in the exalted circles Clorinda’s connexions have brought them into. Now, Eliza’s health entirely restored, their business prospering, a loving triad estab...

Although a number of matters were recently resolved, happily or otherwise, in the circles around Clorinda Lady Bexbury, nonetheless, there are questions that still need to be asked and business to be set in order. Matt Johnson's investigation agency is commissioned to certain necessary enquiries. Seraphine and Euphemia are entire ecstatic at having acquired an estate suitable for fruit-growing for Roberts and Wilson's superior jams and pickles, but further consideration of how to proceed i...

Following her very brief marriage to Lord R-‘s friend the Marquess of B-, Clorinda is now the Dowager Marchioness of B-. While constrained by the formalities of mourning, she is becoming accepted in Society through her own ventures into philanthropy and the patronage of Lady J-. She remains the beloved third of Mr and Mrs F-. She takes up her pen again during a trip to her late husband’s villa near Naples in company with Lord R- and Mr MacD‑.

Matters begin to recover from the upheavals created by Rathe's plots and Lotting's malignity. However, unanticipated events bring new sorrows and turmoil. Yet there are also surprising developments and unexpected encounters. New friendships and fresh alliances are made, as well as old friends and acquaintance remet.

Josiah Ferraby is a wealthy Northern ironmaster, active in civic improvements. It is feared bearing another child will kill his beloved wife Eliza. As he is periodically obliged to go to London, where he is struggling to make the contacts they need to expand and develop their interests, she suggests he takes a mistress there, away from local gossip. He is introduced to the noted courtesan, Madame Clorinda Cathcart…

Clorinda has successfully brought about a better state of affairs in the household of Lord D-. However, there are still problems in her circle; in particular, there seems something not quite right in the Earl of N-’s establishment…