Was there a duller subject than a young lady’s watercolors? Nevertheless she told him of painting every afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Olivia obliged and watched the gentleman’s eyes glaze over. “Tell Lord Stanton about your watercolors,” Lady Archer urged. “Perhaps we should have spent less time learning how to pour tea and more time learning to flirt,” Olivia murmured as she watched Lady Katherine playfully bat her eyelashes at the hordes of young men around her.īy the end of Olivia’s first season, even attempting to learn how to flirt would prove impossible, for men dared not venture into the wallflower corner of the ballroom, which was where Olivia spent most of her evenings.ĭ ressed in a modestly cut gown, made of fabric in a not very flattering shade of white, Olivia made the rounds of soirees and balls with her mother constantly by her side, wrangling gentlemen for conversation, since Olivia had spent “far too much time wallowing with her wallflower friends” instead of seeking a husband during her previous season. Proper ladies were rewarded with good husbands and every happiness.īut it looked like Lady Katherine was having an awfully good time. The rule breakers traveled down a dangerous path of vice, onward to ruin.

Olivia eyed Lady Katherine with something like jealously before stifling the sort of base emotion in which ladies did not indulge. It was safe to say they were not discussing drainage ditches. Nearby, Lady Katherine Abernathy-their classmate from Lady P’s-burst into laughter, along with the group of young, handsome, eligible bachelors surrounding her. “I spent a half hour listening to Lord Gifford talk about the drainage ditches on his estate.” “I tried that and it was a disaster,” Prudence said with a shudder. It was one of The Rules they had dutifully learned. “Exactly! ‘A young lady should be seen and not heard,’ ” Olivia said. “But what are we to do if they ask us about ourselves?” “We’re supposed to ask gentlemen about themselves,” Emma remarked.

She had just returned from one of the three dances on her otherwise empty dance card. “I daresay gentlemen don’t care to hear about embroidery,” Olivia remarked to her friends-and fellow wallflowers-Lady Emma Avery and Miss Prudence Merryweather Payton.

The season had scarcely begun when it was abundantly clear her education would be useless for attracting suitors. I n spite of extensive preparation from Lady Penelope’s Finishing School for Young Ladies of Fine Families, Lady Olivia Archer was a failure on the marriage mart.

Wallflower Gone Wild by Maya Rodale