The Duchess

Angélique Latham spends her childhood at Belgrave Castle in nineteenth-century England, raised by her father, the Duke of Westerfield, after her French aristocratic mother dies. By eighteen she is his closest confidante among his children and has been trained to help run the vast estate. Then he dies, and her half-brothers throw her out of the only home she has known, refusing even to acknowledge that she is their sister.

She leaves with a sharp mind, striking looks and an envelope of money her father pressed into her hands. Without references or connections, no respectable household will hire her. She makes her way to Paris, where she helps a young woman escape a cruel madam, and the encounter gives her an idea that is both daring and practical: a refined house of pleasure that keeps its women safe and accepts only the finest clients.

Drawing on her breeding, her taste and her inheritance, Angélique founds Le Boudoir, which quickly becomes the talk of the city. Powerful men and sophisticated women meet there behind closed doors, and Angélique lives always at the edge of scandal. She must decide whether she can ever build a life that is truly her own, or win back the place she was born to.

The story moves from England to Paris and on to New York, set in an age of upheaval when women had few options in a world run by men. It follows a determined woman who keeps her dignity and spirit whether she is in a castle or a far humbler home.