The Purpose of Miss Shepley
Striving to secure her future through marriage, an heiress with a dubious pedigree begins to question who she truly is -- and who she wants to be.
*****
Edith Shepley looks like a Wyrm.
She takes after her father, whoever he was -- she doesn't know, and even if she cared to, it would hardly change things. She is a proper Folk lady, as sure as the sun rises, trained from the cradle to govern as Baroness of Ewert someday. And she knows her duty.
A woman, now, at sixteen years old, the time has come for Edith to marry and beget Ewert's next heir. Journeying from country estates to city townhouses, through war-ravaged lands in between, Edith diligently considers suitor after suitor, some sweet, some baffling, some detestable -- and, suddenly, who her father was begins to matter very much. The more she sees of her mother's society, the more Edith questions whether she really is Folk, after all. And the more she's stung by its insults, its injuries and injustices, the more she wonders if she really even wants to be.
But what is a proper young lady to do, if not her duty?
Book One of The Unfinished Wyrm!
Wattys 2017 "The Storysmiths" winner!