In the Bishop's Carriage

Nancy Olden is twenty-two, broke, and running from the police when she steals a watch and a magnificent red coat that doesn't belong to her. This isn't a story about redemption or reform. It's about a woman who refuses to be respectable on society's terms, who uses her wits and charm to navigate a world that has no place for girls like her. When she mistakenly slips into what she thinks is her father's carriage, only to discover it's the Bishop's, she doesn't panic, she improvises. What follows is a picaresque cascade of deceptions, misunderstandings, and sharp social critique, all filtered through Michelson's witty, forward-thinking eye. The novel punctures Victorian morality with humor and heart, asking what freedom really costs a woman who refuses to play by the rules. Nearly lost to time, it survives as a delicious artifact of early feminist fiction, a stolen carriage, a stolen watch, and a heroine who gets away with it all.