Manufacturing a Duchess
To help raise his young daughter, Alec Raeburn, the Duke of Selkirk, needs to remarry. To rescue his financially troubled estate, he needs his next wife to be a wealthy heiress as well. Though she is from the middle class and her father’s wealth comes from ownership of a factory, Aurora Hardcastle would appear to be a very suitable candidate. Unfortunately, Alec is attracted to her strikingly beautiful friend, and Aurora suffers from a sense of her own inadequacy. Can they change?
This story of how a proposed marriage of convenience develops into a love match offers perceptive insights into several important, related issues. Snobbery and unkindness pervade the treatment by those higher on the social ladder towards those below them, and these attitudes are passed on to the children they raise. Yet behind the mask of superiority and indifference lurks a deep insecurity lest they lose their cherished status, as well as resentment against those perceived as a threat. They feel such people should know their place in the hierarchy, and it is the duty of their ‘superiors’ to make sure they do. The path to a happy ending is strewn with obstacles, and the warnings are forceful. Strongly recommended.
