Naomi’s Reviews > A Christmas Bride / Christmas Beau > Status Update

Ch.2”She knew it. And cared not the snap of two fingers. She had decided long ago-six years ago, to be precise-that life was to be lived and enjoyed, and live it and enjoy it she would. She had earned her enjoyment.”

Ch.2”Gentlemen found her fascinating despite the fact that she was long past her youth. Ladies were secretly envious of her, though her age protected her from their jealousy. Yet the feeling was-though no one could quite explain it-that she hovered dangerously close to the edge of respectability.“

Ch.2”Her husband, more than thirty years her senior, had been besotted with her and had left her a very generous legacy. This she had conserved and increased through careful investments. She traveled to every corner of the British Isles and to every country of Europe, the wars being long over.”

Ch.2”She had been a widow for ten years, yet apart from the first four of those years, when she had gone to stay with cousins in Scotland, she had adopted neither of the two courses that were expected of widows. She had not retired to live quietly as a dowager on the estate of her dead husband's son, and she had not shown any interest in remarrying.
She had gone traveling.“

Wait hold on that might’ve been the elder mr.

He’s only thirty and he’s declared himself an “old man” I’m sick. Dang that is wild. Well haphazard Google search says average life expectancy in early 1800s England was 40 years old DANDGUM!?

Old money vs. new money

Okay so 37 year old son of a Bristol merchant that became wealthy and renovated a mansion. Edgar (37 year old son) became a lawyer and then took over his family’s business. This made Edgar extremely wealthy in his own right. “He spoke and dressed as a gentleman….But he was not a gentleman by birth, and in certain circles that fact made all the difference in the world.”