Beatrice’s insistence on a display about bicycles is no coincidence. According to Susan B. Anthony herself, bicycling “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” Bicycling for women was really championed by suffragist Frances Willard who, when she died, was one of the most famous and beloved women in America. She wrote a little book called How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, which is a wonderful meditation on what it means for a woman to have the freedom a bicycle affords—and also how necessary it is for women’s fashions to change to allow her more freedom to ride. I will be forever grateful to Bill Strickland for teaching me about her.
In the process of researching this series, I have been delighted to discover so many dynamic, innovative, and successful REAL women—and that they keep popping up in each other’s life stories. I was also enraged that I hadn’t heard of them before. Based on history textbooks and what’s taught in school, we’re given to think that women were just languishing at home in the drawing room, doing nothing of great consequence. This is the noble duty of the historical romance novel: to rediscover and breathe life back into these women’s lives so we can learn and revere our otherwise ignored history.
One last thing—you may notice that Wes and Beatrice don’t have a baby in the epilogue. In all my years of research in the genre I have never found The Law that says every happy ending must have a baby or two or ten. So this HEA is for the readers whose idea of happiness does not include children and for those who struggle with having one (I feel you). So imagine what you will for Wes and Beatrice. Because happy-ever-afters are ours to create and define.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to everyone who helped make this book possible: the wonderful team at Avon Books, my friends in Romancelandia, and my supportive family (especially Tony). Special thanks to Mama Rodale for a love of romance and shopping.
About the Author
MAYA RODALE began reading romance novels in college at her mother’s insistence. She is now the bestselling and award-winning author of smart and sassy romances. She lives in New York City with her darling dog and a rogue of her own.
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By Maya Rodale
The Gilded Age Girls Club
An Heiress to Remember
Some Like It Scandalous
Duchess By Design
Keeping Up with the Cavendishes
It’s Hard Out Here for a Duke
Lady Claire Is All That
Chasing Lady Amelia
Lady Bridget’s Diary
The Bad Boys and Wallflowers Series
The Bad Boy Billionaire: What a Girl Wants
The Bad Boy Billionaire’s Girl Gone Wild
Wallflower Gone Wild
The Bad Boy Billionaire’s Wicked Arrangement
The Wicked Wallflower
The Writing Girl Romances Series
Seducing Mr. Knightly
The Tattooed Duke
A Tale of Two Lovers
A Groom of One’s Own
Three Schemes and a Scandal
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
an heiress to remember. Copyright © 2020 by Maya Rodale. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
Digital Edition APRIL 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-283885-8
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-283884-1
Cover design by Guido Caroti
Cover art © Paul D’Innocenzo 2019
Avon, Avon & logo, and Avon Books & logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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