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The Changeable Rose
by Jessie Watson
ISBN: 0821758136
Published December 1997 by Zebra
Back in the days of her London debut, when her father was still wealthy, Miss Clare Winchester had been thought "fast" because of her taste in clothing and the stunts she pulled, such as attending the Cyprians' Ball. She was even said to paint her cheeks and acquired the sobriquet the Changeable Rose. But her father lost all her money and when he died Clare faded from the social scene; thereafter she lived quietly in Edwardes Square with her Aunt Maude.
One day when making one of their infrequent visits to the modiste Madame Claudine, Clare and her aunt encountered a young girl called Evelyn who applied for work and was roundly turned off. Clare took pity on Evelyn and took her home. She learned that Evelyn was the niece of the Earl of Northrup and had run away from home because of things her silly governess Miss Merrow had told her about Northrup being a tyrant. Clare decided to give Evelyn a taste of London and began taking her about.
When he heard about it Northrup was angry at Clare for her presumption in taking Evelyn in. He then heard all about the old gossip from Leticia Marlowe, a former flame who married a wealthier man and was now widowed and after Northrup again. Meanwhile Clare was being pursued by Mr. Tobias Portman, who had also married for money and was now widowed, and Maximilian Newmarch, a very nice man whom Clare liked but could not love. Northrup now thinks "they're all alike" and only after money.
I had mixed feelings about this novel. On the minus side, the various mismatches are not particularly interesting, and Leticia's well deserved consequences will occur offstage. On the plus side, Evelyn's problems were handled with common sense and kindness, about as they might be in real life. At one point she got a crush on Byron, which Clare cleverly demolished by first telling her her about Caro Lamb and mentioning the poet's hobby of collecting locks of hair (she does not say that they're not from the lady's head), and when this doesn't work she tells Evelyn that Byron wears curl papers to bed and bites his nails. That would have cured me too. (Posted by Janice 2/1/22)
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