The Gentleman's Gambit (A League of Extraordinary Women, #4)

by Evie Dunmore

On her left nipple, the silver studs of her piercing caught the red gleam from the fire in the hearth.

Girl got a piercing in an era before fully accepted germ theory? Brave.

In his immaculately tailored dinner attire, Elias was glaringly overdressed next to his host, but then only the local gentry had the privilege of wearing patchy jackets with impunity—everyone else would be judged as lowly bred or poor.

MacKenzie was shaking her head; in her opinion, women’s suffrage was a fancy idea by the gentry, for the gentry. She closed the lid of the bed warmer and came to her feet.

Elias grabbed his walking stick from the commode.

Listen, I realise this is just a type of chest of drawers, but if you know your audience will immediately think of something else you should probably not use the historical term

But he never took payment; he dealt in favors and he gained trust—essential for strong relations between men of business.

Please tell me this man is going to end up colonising Scotland by way of marrying into a titled family

“She said hose in front of a man,” Catriona finally said, “didn’t she.” “She did,” Lucie confirmed. “When she described how well you handle the hose.” “Thanks.”

Lol

Had she been much younger, fifteen or so, she would have relished Mr. Khoury watching her put out a fire, confident that he’d find her skills charming. These days, she knew better; a spurting hose in a woman’s hands was quite shocking, and men usually found nothing alluring about a lady mastering manly tasks.

He had memories of a fuming Khalo Jabbar feeling bested by a bunch of thirteen-year-old girls in braids. His uncle came from a generation where women were quiet and lowered their gaze to the floor in the presence of a man, but the amila were loud when they spoke with one voice. A late retribution on behalf of the first cohorts of girls in the factories in the sixties, Elias thought. With his keen eye for opportunity, Jabbar and other men of business had collected the many orphans after the civil war to harness their destitution for profit. The new generation, however, had both roots and teeth.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you the story of the maps,” Elias said. “We didn’t draw them; they were drawn up in the forties by an Austrian prince and a British diplomat. I know it was their solution for our peasant revolt, but it was a revolt against ruling elites of all denominations, so how would drawing new borders and shuffling us around depending on creed solve an economic issue? It did the opposite, I think, hence the ‘trouble’ in the sixties, but the maps stuck. C’est tout.”

Rather relevant to the current moment

He bit back an inappropriate comment about his oversized weapon.

Lol

“If I were the only person in the world,” she said to the ceiling, “how would I even know I was a woman? Who would tell me? Who would make me? I would just be me. Why can’t I just be me?”

I want to hug Catriona so much

Lucie gave an embarrassed shrug. “I think my own wedding preparations make me look at everything from a matrimonial angle,” she offered. “It’s quite disgusting.”

For all their faults and scandal, none of her friends’ matches were unprecedented in society history, when she, Catriona, couldn’t think of a single case where a lady of her station had married outside of a European house.

I feel like there has to be a royal or two in there somewhere

Sensationalist stories. She placed the letter flat onto her desk and rested her eyes on the lovely, blooming garden outside the window. Very carefully, she sipped some tea. Her research in the Bodleian had suggested that at least one woman had perished in prison, and some women had left the country to avoid incarceration. It was enough to merit her efforts, thank you very much.

In fairness, focusing only on the furthest outliers of an issue *is* sensationalist. Bit like how the news goes on about white girls raped by strangers in dark alleys when in reality the biggest dangers to any woman by far are her own father, uncles, brothers, and romantic partners

I have wanted to do that for a long time.”

Bro it's been like two weeks

Elias sympathized. Some people just seemed collectively condemned to be born into a small place to which they were greatly attached, only to leave it behind for London or America, driven away by foreign overlords or hunger.