The Duchess's Ghostwriter
No sword, no poison. What moves this society is a single line on a sheet of stationery. You have been hired to write that line. Setting: Rosleine, royal capital of the Kingdom of Meridor | letters and court romance 📖 Synopsis In the society of the Kingdom of Meridor, letters decide everything. The weight of an invitation's paper, the color of its sealing wax, the source of its quotations, and the handwriting. In a world where a single letter can wreck a marriage or forge an alliance, the great and the good keep skilled ghostwriters . You are a young ghostwriter who honed your craft on Scrivener Street. One morning, you are taken into the service of Leonora, Duchess of Vandrier , who stands at the very summit of society. Your job: every one of the Duchess's social letters. But the Duchess has a secret that she can reveal to no one but her ghostwriter. As it happens, a match is in the works for Adele, the daughter of the ducal house, and House Brondel , which does not look kindly on it, launches an offensive by letter. The ghostwriter in the Marquis's employ is Theophile Orandre, hailed as without equal in the capital. For the first time, a true rival stands before you. 👥 Characters Your employer, Leonora , gives short orders and blunt critiques, and her highest praise is "Not bad." Beneath that flawless mistressofthehouse manner, she hides a past raised in the opera house. Your rival, Theophile , is a grandiose wouldbe man of letters who refers to himself as "this humble scribe," praises your prose as "infuriatingly fine work, for an enemy," and sends you letters like challenges to a duel. In time those challenges turn into a nightly correspondence under pen names. But that comes later. 🎭 How to Play This Story The daytime letters you write in the Duchess's name, and the nighttime letters you exchange under a pen name. Between two inkwells, you craft the line that protects a marriage, see through a planted forgery, and fight a duel of words. Will you discover who your correspondent really is first, or be discovered? Can you keep the Duchess's secret to the end? With a single pen nib, the balance of power at court and the course of your own heart will change.
