Nov
Megan Mulry Visits The Ballroom & a Modern Duke meets his Ancestor
Our guest today is Miss Megan Mulry, who has brought the hero and heroine of her new release A ROYAL PAIN to meet Lady B. I adored A Royal Pain and so did many others. As Hester Browne, New York Times bestselling author of Swept Off Her Feet, put it. “Megan Mulry’s vivacious Bronte is every Englishwoman’s nightmare—the straight-talking, hot-blooded, all-American girl who bags the Duke! Now, if only all English aristos could be as delicious as Max… “ To read an excerpt visit Megan’s Website.
Welcome to The Ballroom, Megan. I’m thrilled to have you here. I can’t wait for you to meet Lady B.
Megan: I lied to Max and Bronte and told them it was a Regency costume party in modern-day Mayfair, rather than a time-travel affair that would transport them back to Regency London through the coat closet. Don’t tell!
Lady B: Welcome, Miss Mulry. Introduce me to your companion.
Megan: Thank you for inviting me to the Ballroom, Lady B.
Megan curtsies and whispers to Miranda, “Pssst shall I tell her now or later that it’s Ms. Mulry? Hasn’t Gloria Steinem visited the Ballroom, yet?” Miranda inconspicuously kicks Megan in the shin.
Megan: [wincing] Please allow me to present Maxwell Fitzalan Heyworth, the Duke of Northrop and…[looks around for Bronte]
Miranda: Your Grace.
Max: Please call me Max. It’s true that I’m a duke, but these days we prefer to keep a low profile.
Lady B: Miss Neville! You have brought an impostor into my Ballroom. This man is not the Duke of Northrop. I know the duke well. In fact Bernie is in my card room now. I shall send for him and prove it.
[Megan continues to look worriedly around for Bronte, then notices a commotion at the entrance of the ballroom as the 21st-century Duchess of Northrop, neé Bronte Talbott, attempts to fling her arms around the neck of the man she believes to be her husband. Cut to ballroom entrance.]
Bernard Heyworth, 12th Duke of Northrop: My dear, you are quite alluring, but I fear you have mistaken me for someone else.
Bronte: [removes arms from his neck and fists hands on hips] Max! It’s me, Bronte! Mistaken you for…wait a minute, when did you change your costume?
Bernie: Well, let me think. [ taps his sideburns] I returned from riding in the park, then went to my club and then for a hand of cards, and then here, so I probably changed into this attire at half past six. How does that signify?
Bronte: Max! Why are you talking like that? You sound so poncy and stuffy, like the hero in that Miranda Neville book I was telling you about!
Bernie: Aaah, very well then, so we do share a mutual acquaintance after all. Miss Neville is across the ballroom speaking to Lady B. and introducing her to–my word! What am I doing over there?!
Bronte widens her eyes then plows through the ballroom, tugging the 12th Duke behind her.
Bronte: Max! Where have you been?! Why is it so hot in here? All these candles are ridiculous! Why don’t they turn on the air conditioning? Why didn’t you tell me you had an identical twin? And Megan, I thought you said this was going to be a costume party, not a torment!
Megan: Bron, about that—
Bronte: And this dress is an atrocity! What woman in a million years would let herself be hog-tied with her chest falling out. [tugs at her corset and tries to tuck her bosom back into place, then slowly looks around to realize the entire ballroom has fallen into silence.]
Miranda: Lady B., please allow me to present Bronte, Duchess of Northrop.
Lady B.: Bernie, dear, I thought that tawdry divorce with Elizabeth Bingham was finalized years ago—
Bernie: [feigning disinterest and glancing at his gloves] Yes, Heliotrope. Last I heard my former Duchess had become the Countess of Lucan and decamped to Paris. I have not remarried, thank God.
Lady B.: [resumes waving fan vehemently] Then who, pray tell, is this?! [snaps fan shut and uses it to point at Bronte.]
Bronte: [standing up straighter] I am the wife of the 19th Duke of Northrop! Who, pray tell, are you?!
Lady B.: Miss Neville! Really! Remove this virago from my presence at once!
Miranda: She’s from the 21st century.
[A murmur of whispered gossip begins to spread around the ballroom as the band begins to tune up for a waltz. Bronte clasps her hands together excitedly.]
Bronte: Oh, Max! I love this song! Let’s dance! [Turns to Bernie and gives him a kiss on the cheek.] Sorry for the mix-up before!
Max: [smiles at his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather as Bronte pulls him toward the dance floor]: Let’s have a drink on the terrace after this set and meet properly.
Lady B.: Well! If this an example of 21st century manners I am sorry for you. Ladies ordering men to dance with them. And touching their bosoms in public. And tugging a man on to the dance floor! I never have any trouble getting Lord B to do what I want, but I assure you my methods are far subtler.
Miranda: [mutters] I haven’t noticed Lord B doing a lot of dancing.
Megan: I am so sorry to have caused any offence, Lady B.–
Lady B.: Sorry indeed! You are the one who created such a foul-mouthed guttersnipe?
Megan:[blushing] I suppose I did. But she has a good heart and she loves Max, so that must account for something.
Lady B.: Love. Pish-posh. [stares out at the dance floor where Max swings Bronte through the dance] I suppose there are worse things…
Megan tugs at Miranda’s gown and whispers. “Let’s go! I can’t handle this kind of scrutiny! Max and Bronte can find their own way back to the 21st century through that coat closet!”
Miranda: We must be off, Lady B. Thank you for inviting Megan and her creations.
Lady B.: Yes, yes. [dismisses Megan and Miranda with a light lift of her fan]
[Back hall near the time-travel coat closet]
Megan: Miranda! I am so sorry that was such a disaster! Now do you see why I had to put all of that Regency goodness into the 21st century? None of my characters would survive an hour around here! [Dives head first into the coat closet.]
Do you think you would be a social pariah or a diamond of the first water if you time-traveled back to Regency London? And if you met your ancestor, what would you ask him/her? Megan will send a copy of A Royal Pain to one lucky commenter.
Nov 12, 2012
8:32 am
I think I would be a curiousity, then a pariah, if truth be told. There are some things in our personality that are hard to hold and not do. I love how she tried to pull up her bodice. Sounds like something I might do. What would you do if your lace tuck itched? The reason I don’t wear lace bras is because it is unlady like to scratch your boobs and it is very hard to try to do it, too. Because of things like that, an slip of a swear word and (whispers) farting in public (which I never have understood how some people don’t do it) would make me more of a pariah.
As for questions for my ancestors – mostly I would get the answer my grandmother gave me – “Ladies don’t talk about such things!” Because I would ask about the family history with mental illness (from the Beck side of my family) and my edema legs (from the Flory side of my family – my grandmother had edema in her legs like me.) There IS one side of the family (my Mom’s Herd side) who may talk to me about things. Watch, they would only use the answer – “We were starving.” (Which is the answer I got when I asked my mother why her family emigrated from Cornwall, England to America). I would love to hear if the family were in service as servants as well as working in the slate quarries.
Most people can say their ancestors were rich – mine were poor. My father’s side were farmers and my mother’s side work in Slate Quarries and the mines.
Nov 12, 2012
9:50 am
Hi Jamie,
I totally know about the lace undergarment problem. Just last week I was trying to explain why I never wear thongs if I can help it (whispers wedgie).
And, like you, the ancestry lore is often spotty at best. At first there are lots of Horatio Alger potato-famine-to-prosperity tales from the Irish side of the family and then after a few scotches I hear the truth about barkeeps and sketchy Vaudevillian piano players who were rather loose with their bookkeeping.
Thanks for visiting!
Nov 12, 2012
11:55 am
I hate lace bras! By all accounts Regency stays were relatively comfortable compared to the heavy duty Victorian variety. No the other hand, I can’t get used to idea of a corset that pushes your boobs apart. What, no cleavage?
Interesting, isn’t it Jamie, that people avoid talking about their disreputable ancestors even though they’re long dead. I gather one great-grandfather was something of an adventurer. I think this is fascinating but for a long time my father hated to talk about him
Nov 12, 2012
3:57 pm
PS (whispers) OMG Jamie, look what’s all the rage in Japan!!! The victorious image slays me!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/deoest-odor-eliminating-u_n_2117678.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
Nov 12, 2012
6:11 pm
That is too cool! What will they think of next?
Nov 12, 2012
7:29 pm
Jamie, you are hilarious.
Nov 12, 2012
9:50 am
Ladies! What a fun blog today. Hello, Megan!
Hmm. I think I’d settle somewhere in the middle, like most ladies did. If I’m going to be absolutely honest, then I can admit that I would rprobably drive most of the gentlemen mad, whispering and giggling (and ogling legs) with my friends, every time one of them walked past. At 18 or so, I was a bit… boy crazy. (Shocking, I know.)
I couldn’t possibly choose just one question. I have so many! I guess I’d like to know what daily life was truly like and how my anscestry felt about their life and prospects.
Nov 12, 2012
10:55 am
Hi Olivia,
Oh how I love the idea of the whispering-giggling-ogling Regency girls staring at all that masculine leg!
I love daily-life questions too. One of my favorite books of that variety is “A London Family” by Molly Hughes (sometimes listed as Mary Vivian Hughes or M.V. Hughes), depicting her day-to-day life in London from 1870-1900. Highly recommend.
Happy to see you here!
Nov 12, 2012
11:56 am
I think the gentlemen would thoroughly enjoy you ogling them, Olivia. You might get a scolding from Lady B but we know her bark is worse than her bite. Not to mention the pot/kettle thing.
Nov 12, 2012
10:38 am
Hello Megan! Welcome to the Ballroom. It’s lovely to have you here. A Royal Pain sounds like a lot of fun. Definitely has to go on my TBR mountain.
I think I’d probably be more on the social pariah side of things if I were transported to Regency London. I’d be too uncomfortable and self-conscious with clothes and foods I’m not used to and I’d totally be fidgety like Jamie. Plus, I really don’t like being told what to do, so all the rules and restrictions would be very stifling and I’d feel compelled to rebel just because. lol
I actually don’t know much about my dad’s side of the family, so would love to meet one of my paternal ancestors. Like Olivia, I would have so many questions! I would want to hear stories about what their lives were like, and their hopes and dreams. And see if I can maybe trace where my love of books and sarcastic sense of humor comes from.
Nov 12, 2012
11:58 am
Hah, Lisa. You’d just have to be a feisty heroine! I for one don’t believe the young ladies were nearly as well behaved as we are told.
Nov 12, 2012
12:03 pm
Hi Lisa,
I think I would like all the new foods and clothes, but with my heritage, I would have been the Irish kitchen maid below stairs stirring it or sewing it, rather than up in the ballroom partaking!
Thanks for commenting
Nov 12, 2012
11:22 am
I think that they would throw me out! I would probably cause such a scene with my big mouth. I would not be able to handle those dresses and corsets and stuffy people. I love to read about time travel romance. Thanks for the chance
Nov 12, 2012
12:00 pm
I’m always tempted by time travel because I can imagine how difficult it would be to suddenly find oneself constrained by convention and dress. I’d want to pack my yoga pants for a trip to 1812.
Nov 12, 2012
12:05 pm
Hi Sheryl, Sounds like you and big-mouth Bronte should meet. By the way, what is your favorite time travel romance?
Nov 12, 2012
11:46 am
I would definitely be a disaster. All those petticoats? I can’t walk across the room in sneakers and jeans without tripping over something!
Nov 12, 2012
12:01 pm
Tripping, yes! The fashion plates of the era are full of gowns with ridiculous trains. Mind you, some of the stuff that hits the runway these days is fairly unwearable…
Nov 12, 2012
12:08 pm
Hi Catie, I forgot about the clumsy. Lately, after even one glass of wine (or raffia in this case) I am a bumbling mess. Visions of grabbing at curtains and setting the ballroom on fire just filled my head.
PS Does anyone else get raffia and ratafia confused?
Nov 12, 2012
12:03 pm
Lovely to have you in The Ballroom, Megan. I enjoyed A Royal Pain so much – pulling off a modern duke can’t have been easy but you succeeded brilliantly. Max is adorable!
I’m descended from an 18th century English gentleman and his Italian/Swiss mistress. Very little is known about her and I would love to meet her and find out. History does not reveal if he spoke Italian or she English. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they communicated only in bad French and in bed.
Nov 12, 2012
12:17 pm
Am so happy to be here! So glad you liked A Royal Pain. Yes *cough* writing about wealthy, handsome, sexy British men who are crazy about American women is very, very taxing.
The “romantic” side of my family lore that I’d like to learn more about includes a French-New Orleans gambler of ill-repute. There’s an unfinished mid-19th-century portrait of “Uncle Chauncey” and the story goes that painters would only paint when they were paid, so his portrait is quiet nice around the eyes, then a bunch of loose brushstrokes everywhere else. It’s also possible that my father’s mother made that entire story up.
Nov 12, 2012
12:28 pm
Welcome, Megan! And Bronte, Max, Bernie. We’ve finally found the woman who shakes up Lady B!
I do love a foul-mouthed, forward, fish-out-of-water heroine.
If I lived in the Regency, I’m pretty sure I would have been a bookish, socially inept oddity — which is pretty much why I wrote the Spindle Cove series, so I could write those kinds of heroines!
Nov 12, 2012
3:14 pm
Hi Tessa,
Thanks for having me! So glad you are a fan of the occasional pushy guttersnipe, but please keep your socially inept heroines coming!
Nov 12, 2012
12:49 pm
Probably a social pariah… I would too bookish, too outspoken… Too unlike most of the ladies of the times.
Nov 12, 2012
3:22 pm
Hi May,
No! The outspoken, bookish among us always snagged the Duke…at least that’s what Joan Wolf, Judith McNaught, and Norma Lee Clark told me!
Nov 12, 2012
1:55 pm
LOL! Hi Miranda! Megan, welcome to the Ballroom and I think you and your ‘creations’ are a breath of fresh air here (don’t tell Lady B I said that, please).
I know I would be a social pariah – I’m afraid I would probably make Bronte look proper especially if I got a little bit of Tessa’s ratafia in me and the music was raucous. I’ve been known to dance on tables, you see. I fear I would shock Lady B with my outspoken manner and I’m hardly a shrinking violet.
If I met my ancestor, I’d ask him/her a million questions!
Thanks for the fun post and the giveaway. : )
Thank A Veteran.
Nov 12, 2012
3:49 pm
Hi Amy,
Great to be here! (I shan’t say a word to Lady B.!)
If not allowed here at the Ballroom in Regency times, follow me to the time-travel coat closet and go a few years earlier. I bet some Georgians danced on tables (Don’t you think, Miranda?) Apparently Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, started table dancing in her infancy:
Nov 12, 2012
6:04 pm
LOL! My kind of gal. They were definitely party-hearty folks in the Georgian period. I love this painting!
Nov 12, 2012
6:40 pm
Great painting, Megan.
Amy – I’ve danced in some odd places but never on a table (innate sense of self-preservation?). I would be happy to see you do so, however!
Nov 12, 2012
3:51 pm
I’d be a wallflower, if not a maid in the household holding the ball. Sad to say…
Nov 12, 2012
4:17 pm
Hi LilMissMolly, I would have probably been an Irish scullery maid, too…but maybe *our* dukes will be in need of a re-sewn button or a bit of sodium carbonate to remove a stain…and there we would be, in the shadowy back stairwell, ready to assist…and fall in love.
Nov 12, 2012
6:40 pm
The servants always had the best gossip!
Nov 12, 2012
3:55 pm
Hi, Megan! I’m so excited to read your book, so glad you stopped by the Ballroom today.
I’ve been thinking about your question, and I’ve actually got my best friend here next to me so we’re reading this at the same time. She says I have to pick one or the other, but truth is, I just can’t see myself shaking things up so much that I’d be considered a pariah, and I don’t see myself turning heads to be considered a diamond of the first water. I can see myself as a wallflower though, would be taking time just observing people and the environment. I guess that’s me being too cautious, but I just want to be prepared and not be too unaware. Not if I can help it. I’d probably be considered a blue stocking as well, seeing as I live and love books so much. So much to learn and all that. 
I’m giving Carrie anxiety now because she’s seeing how I’m typing so much. She’ll read this later and just laugh. Better agree with me though, hehe. If I were to pick for Carrie, she’d most likely be like me, a blue stocking wallflower. She insists on playing by the rules though and picking just one: pariah or diamond of the first water. Let’s see which one she goes with.
Nov 12, 2012
4:08 pm
You know it! Laughing right now because I just realized that I forgot to mention that I’m looking forward to reading your book.
In reply to Diana, she doesn’t believe me, but I think she would have heads turning her way.
She’ll be a wallflower that blooms <3
Nov 12, 2012
4:20 pm
Hi Diana, I’m with you–my either/or was a bit extreme. I like what your friend says below, that you will be a wallflower that blooms…one of my favorite tropes
Thanks for commenting!
Nov 12, 2012
4:03 pm
Welcome to the ballroom, Megan!
Honestly, I don’t know what I would be if I were to time travel back… I’d probably start out as a wallflower at first until I get a feel for my surroundings. Then I’d like to think I would come out of my shell eventually. My bestie tells me I’m a hoyden so I’ll go with that. Hehe…
As for what I would ask my ancestors, that’s a good question would I be able to time travel back to my own time with my new information? Hmmmm….. That has me thinking now. Oh, I just can’t decide! I think it would be best if the question is asked on the spot. XD
Nov 12, 2012
4:22 pm
Ha. Guess somebody changed their mind. I just mean, C. The carefree aspect of it, also maybe the tomboyish part. Heh. And what you said C, you too. <3
Megan, awesome question.
C and I still laughing and debating about this time travel business. Heehee.
Nov 12, 2012
4:35 pm
Hi Carrie,
Okay, so how about we play it like this: “Carrie and Diana, two orphaned sisters arrive in London alone and frightened, taken in by their third-cousin-once-removed, the formidable Lady Grande-Salope. After many weeks of feeling desperately shy and withdrawn, they receive coveted invitations from the Duke of Ten-Kay-A-Year and the Earl of Many-Mines-In-Derbyshire, twin brothers for whom they have developed deep attachments. Once their passions are unleashed, and their marriage contracts are secured, no one in the ton would dare mention their post-nuptial hoydenish natures.”
Sound about right?
Nov 12, 2012
6:45 pm
I hope Megan is writing the Carrie and Diana story because I want to read it.
Nov 12, 2012
7:14 pm
Oh, MY GOD! We love youuuuu, Miranda!!!
Nov 12, 2012
7:11 pm
Megan,
Diana and I are are totally in love with the world that you created for us. Speechless, we are! Where can we find this book? LOL
Diana is sitting next to me, and she already called dibs on Duke of Ten-Kay-A-Year. One step closer to being a princess, she says XD
How to describe Diana’s man? LOL I have thought about this…. but how to put in words? For one, he needs to be dreamy because she’s a dreamer. She demands a doer… pun intended. He’ll be the devilishly dashing but dangerous (but not too dangerous for my Diana! She can’t be corrupted. Hehe) duke that will sweep Diana off her feet and won’t give her a reason to turn back. A keeper, this dauntless duke!
As for me, I’m imagining that I saved my hero from a tortured past. (D taking over now, because.) C’s very own courtly and charming Earl will be one of those very handy men, those take-charge men; certainly one who will definitely embolden her to be as carefree as can be, as courageous and take that glorious leap. She’s vying for someone complex, with a tortured past, but that’s only because it’s in C’s nature to care for people, and be devoted to them. Whoever this “Earl” is, he’s one lucky man to have captured Carrie’s heart.
Awwww, how sweet is Diana? TMTH! Can we just fast-forward and have our happily ever afters now? Hehhe.. Thank you Megan for enabling us! XD
Nov 12, 2012
8:33 pm
Hi D & C, Yay! I will write your novella this week and post on my blog over the weekend!
Nov 12, 2012
9:30 pm
Oh, sorry. We apologize for the delayed comment . First, must search for more smelling salts to pass to each other, lest we end up on the floor. After all, according to another authoress who just visited the ballroom recently, no heroine worth her smelling salts would ever faint, riight? But Ms. Megan, when we read your reply to the replies, you’ve reduced us to simpering ladies.
Thank you for making our day with your replies.
Nov 12, 2012
9:33 pm
Hurray!
Nov 12, 2012
11:03 pm
Well Carrie and Diana, I can attest that you both are sweethearts and you deserve the best guys! I think Duke of Ten-Kay-A-Year and Earl of Many-Mines-In-Derbyshire are lucky to have captured your hearts!
You two deserve someone who will recognize how lovely and special you two are and will love and cherish you always. *mwah*. Now, to quote Pride and Prejudice and paraphrase the lovely Jane “If only there was such another man for me!” 
I can’t wait to read Megan’s story for you two!!!
Nov 13, 2012
12:55 am
Oh, Lisa, you are the sweetest! Diana and I have been mulling over who would be the perfect man for you as we want the very best for you! We would like to see you with someone fascinating who’ll be able to make you laugh, keep you smiling, and definitely keep you on your toes. An unflappable man, stalwart and true. Definitely, absolutely quick-witted, because he has to be able to trade quips with someone as clever and thoughtful as you.
(Sorry L, taking us too long because had to delete and delete some more. Seems like minds wandering to the gutter, no matter how we resist.
)
Nov 13, 2012
1:02 am
Oh, Lisa, you are the sweetest! Diana and I have been mulling over who would be the perfect man for you as we want the very best for you! We would like to see you with someone fascinating who’ll be able to make you laugh, keep you smiling, and definitely keep you on your toes. An unflappable man, stalwart and true. Definitely, absolutely quick-witted, because he has to be able to trade quips with someone as clever and thoughtful as you.
(Sorry L, taking us too long because had to delete and delete some more. Seems like minds wandering to the gutter, no matter how we resist.
)
Nov 13, 2012
1:06 am
*DYING HERE CARIEBETH* I know you wanted to use our pic as an icon, Miranda! Lady B! Someone needs to delete this post with the image. Hahahaha. FAIL.
Nov 13, 2012
1:12 am
Diana, how even?? You hack my twitter and now this? LOL I love you anyway! <3
Nov 13, 2012
1:23 am
Oh you two! LOL. I love this man you conjured up for me. I’ll take him, yes please!
And as for this mix up-I just know you two are giggling like crazy over it!
Hope Miranda or one of the other Authoresses can help y’all out!
Nov 12, 2012
4:43 pm
Hi Megan and Miranda. That was very funny. I’m so glad I stopped by.
Nov 12, 2012
4:54 pm
Hi Ella, We are here to amuse. Am heading back to the coat closet for a few hours of 8th grade basketball (it’s part of a horrible torture invented in the 20th century called “hands-on parenting”…trust me, you don’t want to know). *starts singing where-have-all-the-governesses-gone*
Nov 12, 2012
6:45 pm
Thanks, Ella. Gah, basketball games. So glad that is over.
Nov 12, 2012
8:34 pm
Lucky you! Final score 14-12. Practically Final Four!
Nov 12, 2012
9:33 pm
Next stop the Olympics. You’re doomed, my dear, doomed.
Nov 12, 2012
6:48 pm
What happened to that Bronte gel? She was quite amusing. When she learns the art of a good set down she’ll make an acceptable duchess.
Nov 12, 2012
7:48 pm
I think you should teach a class, Lady B. I could use a lesson or two.
Nov 12, 2012
8:39 pm
Hello again Lady B. Bronte here. I would LOVE a Set-Down Dictionary…particularly useful when in the presence of my mother-in-law. I suspect mother-in-laws have remained constant through the ages!
Nov 12, 2012
9:34 pm
Lady B would totally take Sylvia.
Nov 12, 2012
7:16 pm
I would most likely be a social pariah, because I’m just not that good in social settings even when I’m comfortable and there I’d be totally out of my element. If I met my ancestor, I’d ask them how they liked waiting on people, because I’m sure they weren’t the ones being waited on.
Nov 12, 2012
8:43 pm
Hi Barbara, I agree with Miranda on this one, servants were always privy to the juiciest gossip!
Nov 12, 2012
7:32 pm
Welcome to the Ballroom, Megan!
I was just talking about this with my sister the other day. I think I’d likely be in a very similar position socially to my current status. Which means, I’d have my own circle but would most likely NOT be someone who ever set foot in Almack’s.
Nov 12, 2012
8:55 pm
Hi Sabrina, Thanks for welcoming me! Love this idea of having one’s circle. I have a friend who swears by the 4-friend rule: Whether she lived in Philadelphia or Portland, Oregon, or south Florida, she contended that once you found your “four friends” it didn’t really matter where (or in which century) you lived…you had your circle.
Nov 12, 2012
7:38 pm
Welcome to the ballroom, Megan! Congratulations on A ROYAL PAIN! I enjoyed every page of it and Max is truly yumlicious.
In the era of the English Regency my family were peasants in Ireland and Slovenia, so I’m quite certain I wouldn’t be in a ballroom asking them anything. But if I could… I’d ask them if dukes were really as sexy as Max back then.
Oh, and I’d be the bluestocking that likes to dress up for balls but is bored with the women’s gossip and thinks most of the men are sports-crazy imbeciles… until I met that one brilliant and delectably handsome lord who just happened to be waiting for a lady he could actually talk with to come along. Le sigh!!
Nov 12, 2012
9:00 pm
Hello Miss Ashe! Thank you for having me. How are your princes and pirates doing? Now that you mention it, I think we need a Slovenian prince…make that happen, please. And do let me know the names of your brilliant handsome lord’s unwed male cousins. Research, you know!
Nov 13, 2012
12:55 am
Hello Megan, and welcome to the Ballroom! I do enjoy the wacky space-time continuum that lets us have visitors from all times and walks of life.
In regency times, I would definitely be a social pariah — that brash, no nonsense American who has blunt manners and no social etiquette. I will attract a straight-laced Earl or Duke of course, who is at first annoyed then amused by my American ways.
Nov 13, 2012
3:42 pm
Hi Kate, No matter how brash or shy, I suspect that you would have had every Duke in the ballroom swooning over that mane of spun gold. And, yes please, always annoy that Duke at first! Then it will be that much more fun to watch him suffer as he craves your good opinion in the end. Thanks for welcoming me to the Ballroom!