Status Updates From Dark Dowry (Black Pearl, #1)

'I got to my knees, & then, reaching for what turned out to be a bedpost, hauled myself to a standing position. I was not the victim of an attempted rape, but of a search, a very thorough & personal search, by someone who expected me to be carrying something valuable. How could anyone know about the pearls?'

'Her hair was still untinged w/ gray, & her eyes were the same dark brown that Papa's had been. But there all resemblance to any human being ended. Fat spilled over the grotesquely bridal nightgown she wore, great rolls of fat so repellent that w/o Amalie behind me I would not have been able to move toward her. Aunt Maude looked like nothing so much as a monstrous, bloated toad.'

Not much happening yet...but I'm trying to be patient, since it's setting up 7 other books in this series. Goddamn, I'm an impatient bitch anymore. I doubt I could finish ANNA KARENINA in my grumpy old age. :D :D

'Not even the maharani's pearls could make a beauty of me. They might, however, help me win a husband one day. There could have been comfort in that thought, but there was not. A husband bought by pearls was not what I had in mind for myself at all, for I had read the novels Mama adored & I knew that the most important thing was romance.'