Title: Lady Emily’s Exotic Journey
Author: Lillian Marek
Series: Victorian Adventures, #2
Pubdate: August 4^th, 2015
ISBN: 9781492602293

Synopsis

From sensible, sheltered girl

Safe in the embrace of her loving family, Lady Emily Tremaine longs to feel more intensely alive. Surely the magic and mystery of Assyria and the fabled ruins of Nineveh will bring about the transformation she seeks.

To the woman his heart desires

Scarred by his past and estranged from his noble grandfather, French adventurer Lucien Chambertin desires neither a home nor the chains of emotional attachment. He seeks only to explore the far reaches of the world. But he did not know the world contained the likes of Lady Emily—whose curiosity and sense of wonder match his own.

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Exclusive Exerpt

When the English traveled abroad, their first stop was usually Paris. This had been true for centuries, and it didn’t change in the Victorian era. Probably the most famous English visitor was the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, known as Bertie. He fell in love with Paris when he was fifteen and his parents, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, took him along on a state visit, where they were welcomed by Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie.

It was a delightful experience for him. Not only was he free from tutors and boring studies but his parents were too busy to nag him all the time, leaving him free to enjoy the excursions. At one point he confided to Napoleon, “I wish you were my father!” and he asked Eugenie if he could stay after his parents returned to England.

He wasn’t allowed to stay then, but once he was an adult he returned frequently, staying in an apartment on the Avenue de l’Opera. With his fluent French and perfect manners he was popular with the French as well. If he liked to pretend he was strolling around Paris anonymously, the French were willing to pretend this was so.

What did he like so much about Paris? The art, the music, the theater, and the food, of course. Also the nightclubs, cabarets and brothels. Perhaps most of all, Paris was a short trip and still allowed an escape from his mother’s constant disapproval.

Bertie’s Parisian escapades may explain the English picture of “Gay Paree,” the place where Englishmen could go to kick up their heels, where manners were free and morals were lax. It wasn’t that you couldn’t do the same things in London—but in Paris your neighbors wouldn’t know.

That wasn’t all there was to Paris, of course. Most visitors were far more serious. Guidebooks sniffily proclaimed that at least two weeks were needed to view just the principal sights of the city and assumed that the visitor would spend his time at cultural and historic sites. The 1867 Baedeker guide to Paris, for example, devotes twenty-four pages of small type to the collections in the Louvre, explaining that this mentions only the most interesting items.

Interestingly, that guidebook also includes the following passage:

“To ensure civility from servants, officials and others, the traveler in France is cautioned not to omit the inevitable “s’il vous plait” when making a request, or even when ordering refreshments at a café or restaurant.…It should, moreover, be borne in mind that it is customary to address persons of humble station as “Monsieur”, “Madame”, or “Mademoiselle”.

Apparently the English were not accustomed to being courteous to social inferiors.

About the Author

Lillian Marek was born and raised in New York City. At one time or another she has had most of the interesting but underpaid jobs available to English majors. After a few too many years in journalism, she decided she prefers fiction, where the good guys win and the bad guys get what they deserve.

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