A Bride for the Season by Jennifer Delamere

They needed skilled operators, and the rumor was that most paid better wages than the government did. She’d begun to look for positions at private companies that were large enough to rent their own private telegraph lines. While Alice enjoyed the work, she found the working conditions too stifling.

The telegraph service was a government entity, overseen by the postmaster general. Every aspect of their work, right down to the breaks, was strictly regimented. The job was challenging and rewarding in its own way, but she was just one among hundreds of men and women who worked there like bees in a hive. This was no mere dream, for big changes were coming if-no, when-she got the job at Henley and Company, a firm that specialized in imports of wheat and cotton.Īlice had spent the past seven years as a first-class operator at London’s Central Telegraph Office. She wanted to make her own rules about when she could come and go and what she could do. Alice had no desire for any of that nonsense she wanted an opportunity to set up on her own. Unlike most of the women at this boardinghouse, she wasn’t here as a stopgap before finding a man who would marry and support her. Reston kept watch over her brood of young ladies like a mother hen.Īlice knew she was lucky to have a good job and a place to live, but she was ready for a change. The landlady who presided over them all was kind enough, if overly vigilant. It was a humble place, no doubt about it, but it was reasonably clean and housed friendly boarders. It was a lumbering pile of brown bricks that, to Alice, always gave the appearance of frowning. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.Īlice McNeil looked up at the London boardinghouse that had been her home for over a year. All other characters, however, are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.Ĭover design by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota/Jon GodfredsonĪuthor is represented by BookEnds, LLC. This is a work of historical reconstruction the appearances of certain historical figures are therefore inevitable. Putnam’s Sons (New York and London, 1901). Other quotations reprinted from Myrtle Reed, The Spinster Book, G.P. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Books by Jennifer Delamere from Bethany House Publishersīethany House Publishers is a division ofīaker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, MichiganĪll rights reserved.

A Bride for the Season by Jennifer Delamere