The Duchess by
Danielle Steel
My rating:
5 of 5 stars
Okay, this has to be my second most favorite Danielle Steel book. I read it in two sittings. It is a real departure from her normal, contemporary novels, as it is set in England in the 1800's.
A young girl, Angelique Latham, is the daughter of a Duke and his second wife, a noble French woman related to two kings of France. The Duke is related to the current king of England. Angelique's mother dies after the birth, leaving her young daughter to be raised by her father. Her two older half brothers, from the Duke's first marriage, do not like their sister and did not like their stepmother, who was a wonderful woman and wife to their father. When Angelique's father dies when she is only 18, her older brother is left the estate. As the daughter, he cannot leave anything to her, although he hopes his son will take care of her financially and let her life in the guest cottage on the estate. Luckily, right before he dies, her father is able to give her some money he had hidden away, enough to keep her for the rest of her life. Immediately after her father's funeral, her older brother makes her leave immediately, having securing a spot for her as a nanny to a family some distance away who have 5 children with one on the way. She is the sole nanny, never having even been exposed to children before. Surprisingly, she does very well and grows to love the children (more than their parents do) and they love her. However, after 16 months, a guest of the family corners her in the nursery and tries to rape her. She fights him off but in order to save face, he goes to the employer and claims she came to his rooms and came on to him. She is fired on the spot, with NO references. She goes to London to look for a job, but with no references she is unable to secure anything. It is suggested that she try France, so she goes to Paris and, again, is unable to secure any position. She checks into a hotel to explore her options when she encounters a young woman in the gutter, a prostitute, who has been beaten and abused. She takes her back to the hotel and nurses her back to health and they become best friends. With her money, Angelique decides to open the best brother in Paris, with intelligent, beautiful women, who are able to converse with the top men in the city. She herself, however, although the madam, does not sleep with any of the customers. Instead, she becomes a friend to many, and enjoys great conversation and food with them. Her business becomes wildly successful, as she has found the pick of the crop of women to work for her. However, a few years into the business, two of the customers quarrel and one shoots and kills the other. One of the other guests, a man high in the government and good friend to Angelique, helps her "clean up" the situation, but at the cost of closing her establishment for 6 months to a year, until it all blows over. She goes to New York by ship, not knowing what she will do there, except live on the money she has made. On the way, on the ship, she meets the love of her life and they get married. I won't tell any more of the story, except to say that, again, it's another book I wish DS would write a sequel to, as it's so so good.
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