Devil in Spring Read online

  The character of Pandora is my homage to the real-life board game designer Elizabeth Magie, who invented several games, including one called The Landlord Game in 1906. Charles Darrow eventually sold his version of the game to Parker Brothers and titled it Monopoly. For decades, Charles Darrow was given sole credit for creating Monopoly, but it wouldn’t exist without Elizabeth Magie’s role as the original inventor.

  Gabriel’s reference to “the thousand natural shocks” is from the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I think it’s a perfect phrase to describe the normal challenges and conflicts we all face in life.

  I’ve tried to make all the information regarding British women’s property law in 1877 as accurate as possible. The notion of a married woman owning property or having a separate legal identity from her husband was resisted by society and the government for a painfully long time. A series of Married Women’s Property Acts passed in 1870, 1882, and 1884 gradually allowed women to keep their own money and property instead of having it automatically go to their husbands.

  Also it is true, as Pandora states, that Queen Victoria was against women’s suffrage. As Victoria wrote in 1870, “I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights’, with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to ‘unsex’ themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection.”

  More than ever, after having read so much about the incredible frustration and suffering of our sisters in the not-to-distant past, I cherish the rights they fought for—and won. Never discount your worth, my dear friends. Our opinions and our voices are valuable! The sparks you have inside will provide light for future generations, just as those wonderful women did for us.

  Pandora’s Favorite Blancmange

  Confession: I read historical romances for years without knowing what blancmange was. Now I do, and I’m sharing my hard-won (okay, it took ten minutes) knowledge with you.

  Blancmange, the classic Victorian invalid-or-fancy-person’s food, a French word meaning something white that you eat, is actually delightful. It’s an amazingly delicate, light, pudding-like dessert, except you can’t call it pudding because it’s not made with eggs.

  I sorted through a dozen period recipes, and my daughter and I tried the two we thought would work best. You can make blancmange with either gelatin or cornstarch, but we preferred the cornstarch, which is creamier. Also, use whole milk, or at least pour a splash of half and half into your other milk, because there is no more point to nonfat blancmange than there is to an egg white omelet.

  Ingredients:

  2 cups milk

  ½ cup sugar

  ¼ cup cornstarch

  1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (almond is more traditional)

  Caramel syrup or fruit sauce

  (You’ll also need four teacups, small ½ cup bowls, or one of those molded silicone cupcake baking pans.)

  Directions:

  1. Pour 1 cup milk into a small saucepan and heat to a simmer (steaming with little bubbles at the edges).

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the other cup of milk, the cornstarch, and the sugar, and whisk until smooth.

  3. Pour the contents of the bowl into the saucepan, and turn the heat up to medium-high. Keep stirring with the whisk, or the mixture will burn on the bottom and your blancmange will no longer be blanc.

  4. When the mixture really starts boiling (major bubbling action) keep stirring for 20 seconds, then remove from the heat. Pour into four teacups, or bowls, or silicone cupcake pan.

  5. Chill in the fridge for at least six hours, and serve with a drizzle of sauce. (If you used a silicone cupcake pan, unmold the cute little blancmanges onto plates.)

  6. Eat delicately while reading a romance novel.

  My husband Greg ate four of these at one time because they’re so light, and suggests that anyone with an actual appetite may want cookies on the side.

  About the Author

  LISA KLEYPAS graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. She is a RITA® Award-winning author of both historical romance and contemporary women’s fiction. Her novels are published in fourteen different languages and are bestsellers all over the world. She lives in Washington State with her husband, Gregory, and their two children.

  www.lisakleypas.com

  www.avonromance.com

  www.facebook.com/avonromance

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  By Lisa Kleypas

  Devil in Spring

  Marrying Winterborne

  Cold-Hearted Rake

  Scandal in Spring

  Devil in Winter

  It Happened One Autumn

  Secrets of a Summer Night

  Again the Magic

  Where’s My Hero? (with Kinley McGregor and Julia Quinn)

  Worth Any Price

  When Strangers Marry

  Lady Sophia’s Lover

  Suddenly You

  Where Dreams Begin

  Someone to Watch Over Me

  Stranger in My Arms

  Because You’re Mine

  Somewhere I’ll Find You

  Three Weddings and a Kiss (with Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Catherine Anderson, and Loretta Chase)

  Prince of Dreams

  Midnight Angel

  Dreaming of You

  Then Came You

  Only With Your Love

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  devil in spring. Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Kleypas. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

  EPub Edition MARCH 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-237190-4

  Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-237187-4

  Avon, Avon & Avon logo, and Avon Books & Avon Books logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.

  HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.

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