The Princess Plan. Julia London
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Highlander
I am so excited to introduce a new historical series to you. A Royal Wedding series was inspired by the very real fairy tale we all saw unfold when Meghan Markle married Prince Harry.
The fairytale of a prince and a commoner has endured as the ultimate romantic fantasy—a handsome man of considerable means plucks an unassuming woman (us) from obscurity, puts a crown on our head, sets us up in a big beautiful home with lots of servants to do the washing and cleaning and, bonus, he worships the ground we walk on. You can’t look at the way Prince Harry looks at Meghan and imagine any less.
I wanted to capture that magical thinking after the recent spate of royal weddings. I thought it would be fun to set the fairy tale in London in the Victorian era. But with a bit of a contemporary twist—the women are strong and outspoken characters that today’s readers can relate to. In The Princess Plan, Eliza Tricklebank didn’t go looking for a prince. But after a murder, some titillating gossip, and some snooping around, a prince came looking for her. The rest, as they say, is a happy ever after.
I hope you enjoy The Princess Plan as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Julia London 2019
Contents
Note to Readers
London 1845
All of London has been on tenterhooks, desperate for a glimpse of Crown Prince Sebastian of Alucia during his highly anticipated visit. Windsor Castle was the scene of Her Majesty’s banquet to welcome him. Sixty-and-one-hundred guests were on hand, feted in St. George’s Hall beneath the various crests of the Order of the Garter. Two thousand pieces of silver cutlery were used, one thousand crystal glasses and goblets. The first course and main dish of lamb and potatoes were served on silver-gilded plates, followed by delicate fruits on French porcelain.
Prince Sebastian presented a large urn fashioned of green Alucian malachite to our Queen Victoria as a gift from his father the King of Alucia. The urn was festooned with delicate ropes of gold around the mouth and the neck.
The Alucian women were attired in dresses of heavy silk worn close to the body, the trains quite long and brought up and fastened with buttons to facilitate walking. Their hair was fashioned into elaborate knots worn at the nape. The Alucian gentlemen wore formal frock coats of black superfine wool that came to midcalf, as well as heavily embroidered waistcoats worn