Excerpt: Wicked Woman    

Morgan licked her lips and said with the same foolhardy impetuousness that had begun her American adventure, “I liked kissing you.”
            The fire’s flames found a knot in the wood, spitting and sputtering in the lengthening silence.  “You ought not to have said that,” Ward said finally.
            They locked gazes again.  “I rarely say what I ought to, sir.”
            “That,” he said with a glimmer of a smile,  “I can readily believe.”  Another deep breath.  “Do you ever behave as you ought to, madam?”
             “Not often enough.”
            “What you ought to do right now is adjust that dress.”
            “Which way?”  Oh Lord, she couldn’t have said that—it was the wine—
             His hands shook.  “To conceal your— damn,” he swore softly.
            “It doesn’t signify,” she said huskily.  “You still possess my hands.”
            He lowered his gaze to regard his fingers, so tight around her wrists her skin formed wrinkles.  “If I release them, I may behave badly.”
            “Do you often misbehave, sir?” she quipped, tilting her head slightly.
            “Rarely,” he said with a wry twist of his lips. 
            “Regardless, if you’re suggesting I escape when you release me,” she answered, “it’s pure folly.  Cowardliness is not in my character.”
            “Nor is rape in mine, but I’ve drunk half a bottle of brandy and a full bottle of burgundy this night.  I’m not entirely in control of my actions.  You are unwise to tempt me further."

           Although many believe Boston high society (termed the Boston Brahmins in 1860) were descendants of the Mayflower passengers, they were in fact far more likely to be descendants of shipmasters—merchant princes.  Those that didn’t have a sea-captain somewhere in there background derived their fortunes and their place in society through the clipper ship trade.  At the end of the clipper ship era, Boston Society was established.  While people continued to jockey for position in society in other  major cities for a decade or more, no one entered Boston society, regardless of money or heritage, except through marriage.  The Brahmins were hard-headed, frugal to the extreme and conservative.  Books “banned in Boston” went back as far as the 1820’s, when a man was jailed for selling Fanny Hill.

Beacon Hill, home of the Boston Brahmins

Counting room, Boston Harbor