The Willing Game by Issy Brooke

Author:Issy Brooke [Brooke, Issy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: British, detective, Victorian, Historical, funny, Mystery
Publisher: Issy Brooke
Published: 2018-03-15T22:00:00+00:00

MARIANNE WALKED AIMLESSLY for a while through the ever-crowded streets, wanting to kick at things. She wove her way into the fashionable West End, where theatres and opera-houses and galleries all vied with more and more eating places. Women were enjoying a freedom that was unknown to their grandmothers, and they were making the very most of it. The exploding class of merchants and middle classes led to wealthier wives, and they had to fill their days with something: culture, art, shopping, gossiping, visiting, eating, and walking around so that other people could see them. As Marianne found herself shoved against a shop window by the passing of a family of daughters, towed along by a stout matriarchal figure, she felt a pang of loneliness. She missed Newnham College. The atmosphere there had been lively, yes, but studiously so.

It was true that many of the women who attended the university were simply rich daughters who were filling their time before marriage. Not everyone took their studies as seriously as Marianne had done. But the overriding impression was one of eagerness to seize the new opportunities and make the most of every moment.

The family had passed by now, but Marianne remained where she was. Simeon was too busy to help her. Phoebe was likewise pulled this way and that by her domestic duties, with the added restrictions of her position in society. She was expected to be at home at certain times, and to repay the visits at other times. She had to show her face at charitable events, and become a patron of worthy causes. She didn’t attend church or help out there, not half as much as she ought to have done. And now the police had shown themselves to be stupendously unconcerned.

So Marianne was on her own.

I can do this, she told herself sternly. She drew herself upright and turned around. She would not linger any longer in the showy part of town. She had investigations to make.

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