My sixteenth winter passed, and I was courting Edward Roberts, a gentleman from Devon. His family owned breweries but were predominantly famed for their land, which was plentiful, though Eddie had never witnessed this expanse of economic grandeur himself. He was
educated at Oxford University, and studied music, art and political
history. He was fluent in German, Greek and French and was an absolute gentleman, in all his manners and graces.
He should have been, according to the unspoken rules of social status, far out of my reach. However, in a business collapse, his family's
finances had taken a turn for the worse, and, his fine education aside, his family was slowly being stripped of every attribute. Father had arranged our engagement tactically, at such a time when their son's wife's reasonable dower would be much appreciated, yet they wouldn't look too closely at my status. And though I loved Edward dearly, my love was, seemingly, not entirely requited.
The Roberts family's decline was rapid, so much so, that when Father returned from his trip, his dearest child was dead, and I was engaged to a bankrupt scholar.
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Dear Fred
FanfictionFan, Ebeneezer Scrooge's older sister has a story rarely told on the stage. Based upon a production I acted in (playing Francesca Scrooge herself) in December 2019, I took the opportunity to write out Fan's backstory (with ideas from the cast and cr...
