Blood Royal: A Novel

In the quaint village of Chiddingwick, the Plantagenet name carries weight it no longer deserves. Mr. Edmund Plantagenet, once surely destined for greatness, now ekes out a living as a dancing instructor while still insisting on the deference owed to royal blood. His son Richard, earnest and ambitious, dreams of Oxford and restoring their family's faded glory. But in a world where the old order crumbles and new money rises, what price can a gentleman pay for dignity? When Richard encounters Mary Tudor, the new governess who moves in circles far beneath his father's notions of propriety, the spark between them ignites against the backdrop of village gossip, secret ambitions, and the cruel mathematics of social climbing. Grant Allen delivers a sharp portrait of late-Victorian England's uncomfortable truths: that lineage means little without lucre, that pride often masks poverty, and that love rarely asks permission from class. A comedy of manners laced with genuine yearning, Blood Royal dissects the hollow rituals of aristocratic pretense.