LOVE IS A SCANDAL

Like Lady Fortune (p. 221): Victorian fluff in Regency style, puffed out amusingly in mock-stuffy verbiage. Miranda Powell, shot forth from her native Kent to the protection of a hitherto-unknown London guardian, the Earl of Wingham, has a bracing highway encounter with a handsome stranger--before she has a most puzzling welcome from the Earl and his household. The Earl's aunt, Mrs. Faustine Saltfield, is plainly distressed; the jolly butler (named Grimm) is puzzled; the Earl himself (the handsome stranger, of course) is both amused and apprehensive; and his pretty fiancÉe, kind Charlotte Dempster, is appalled. Why? Because Miranda is not the tiny tyke they expected, but a nubile 17-year-old--whose presence in the Earl's bachelor establishment could prove a scandalous impediment to his rise through Victoria's diplomatic service! What to do? Marry Miranda off pronto, all agree--with Charlotte leading the charge. Unfortunately, however, the only likely suitor--Mr. Oswald Badger--stirs Charlotte, not Miranda (despite his poverty). And Miranda herself is soon set on none other than the Earl. So, after prenuptial antics galore, climaxing in a junk-cart ride for the Earl and Mr. Badger (both sozzled), the marital partners will be appropriately switched. Light, silly, and airily entertaining.