Petticoats and Promises

Equal in station and age, it was foreseeable that neighbors Clara Battersley and Serena Coleridge would become fast friends. More surprising is that they would become lovers—a secret they tell no one.

Giddy with love and the prospect of their London season, they are about to embark on a social whirl of fashionable, high season balls. But Serena’s fortunes are reversed by Napoleon’s escape from Elba. Her financial resources compromised, the two debutantes are parted.

Bereft and facing unbearab...