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Chapters (45)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise forMimi Matthews
  3. Titles by Mimi Matthews
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. Epilogue
  39. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  40. Acknowledgments
  41. Rules for Ruin
  42. Questions for Discussion
  43. Don’t miss Nell’s story in
  44. About the Author
  45. What’s next onyour reading list?

—International bestselling author Jennifer Robson

“This story unfolds like a rose blooming, growing more and more beautiful as each delicate layer is revealed. A tender, luminous romance. I loved it more and more with every chapter!”

—USA Today bestselling author Caroline Linden

“Absolutely enthralling: an endearing, novel-reading heroine who’s in dire danger; a swoonworthy war hero with a scandalous past; and secrets, lots of secrets. Mimi Matthews’s The Belle of Belgrave Square is a thrilling, emotion-packed read from start to finish. I loved it!”

—USA Today bestselling author Syrie James

“The best book I’ve read in a long time: gorgeously written, thoughtfully considered, swoonily romantic, and unafraid to examine issues of class, race, and gender.”

—National bestselling author Olivia Dade

“A moving love story and a vivid re-creation of Victorian life, The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews is a treat of a book for the historical romance lover.”

—Award-winning author Anna Campbell

Titles by Mimi Matthews

Belles of London Novels

The Siren of Sussex

The Belle of Belgrave Square

The Lily of Ludgate Hill

The Muse of Maiden Lane

The Crinoline Academy Novels

Rules for Ruin

Dedication

For Daisy Mae

Epigraph

They tell us, again, in a bustling street

Our Crinolines hurt their poor legs or feet.

Not badly, I trust,—’twere the doctor to pay,

My recipe is, keep out of our way.

—Leichter Hock, Crinoline in Its Bissextile Phases, 1864

Prologue

April 1864

Euphemia Flite stood outside the iron gates that formed the fortresslike entrance to the bleak stone manor house beyond. The institution’s name was wrought in heavy black filigree letters in the arch above: Miss Corvus’s Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies.

Spring storm clouds drifted overhead, darkening an already gray sky. They lent an ominous air to the sprawling estate’s barren gardens and high weathered granite walls. To the public, it was nothing more than a charity school—the dignified remains of a once grand property outside of London, where ragged orphans and street urchins were taught the skills necessary for honest employment.

Effie had been one of those urchins. The first one. To her, the Academy hadn’t been a school. It had been a prison. Her stomach trembled on an uncharacteristic quiver of anxiety to see it again.

It had been more than five years since she’d last passed through its gates. Then, she’d been leaving—a headstrong girl of eighteen, cast out by the Academy’s proprietress, Artemisia Corvus, herself. But it hadn’t been an absolute expulsion. It had only ever been an exile. Effie had understood then, as surely as she’d understood anything, that one day, whether she liked it or not, Miss Corvus would summon her back.

A week ago in Paris, that day had finally arrived.