Paper Princess Free PDF, Epub, Mobi By Erin Watt Book

Chapter One

“It won't happen to me. Never to me!” said Miss Felicity Channing fiercely.

“Why not?” demanded her governess, Miss Chubb. “It's happened to your

three elder sisters. Why not you?”

“I am made of sterner stuff,” said Felicity. Miss Chubb looked at her

delicate charge's sensitive face and wide, vulnerable eyes and gave a

Classic,Erin Watt

cynical snort.

Both ladies were seated beside the fire in the nursery at the top of

Tregarthan Castle in Cornwall. It had been an exhausting day, a day in

which Felicity had watched her sister, Maria, sob her way to the altar to

wed a man she barely knew.

Felicity had three elder sisters, and Maria was the last of the three to be

forced by the girls’ stepfather, Mr. Palfrey, into an arranged marriage. Not

content with being married to one of the richest women in England, Mr.

Palfrey was always on the look-out for more money to support his lavish

tastes. He had married Lucy Channing, the girls’ mother, when she was a

pretty, young widow and the Channing girls were all still in the nursery.

Felicity's mother, now Mrs. Palfrey, had been a permanent invalid for some

years, allowing her husband full rein.

Mr. Palfrey was a thin exquisite of some forty years with a nasty waspish

tongue and a determination to get his own way. His main ambition was to

rid Tregarthan Castle of all his stepdaughters and then to modernize the

place to suit his luxurious tastes. To that end, he had arranged marriages for

each girl as she came of age. Penelope had been the first to go, wed to a

baronet in Devon, then Emily to a rich merchant, and now Maria to a

wealthy bishop. His aim in marrying the girls to rich men was to provide

himself with the reassurance that they would make no claim on their

mother's fortune. He had bullied his sick wife into making a will in which

she left everything to him, having pointed out that her daughters were in no

need of money. There was a “Scotch” clause in the history of the Channings

that meant the estates and fortune did not automatically become the

property of the husband and could be left to the daughters, if Mrs. Palfrey

chose to do so. When Mrs. Palfrey protested weakly that there was still

Felicity, Mr.

Palfrey replied that Felicity had turned eighteen and would soon “be dealt

with” like her sisters before her.

But Penelope, Emily, and Maria had inherited their mother's meek and

biddable ways. The late Mr.

Channing had been a member of the untitled aristocracy, a brave man, and a

good soldier. He had also had a great zest for life, and a strong sense of

humor. Out of the four, only Felicity had inherited her father's courageous

spirit.