Defy or Defend
Page 21
No one will have heard of me at all. Faith was cheered by that thought. Oh, the joy of anonymity.
“Hardly matters. Werewolves don’t have standards.” Mrs Wigglesworth spoke with unsubstantiated confidence.
Faith actually didn’t mind overmuch. Anything to get out of the house. Apparently, she hadn’t any standards either.
Her mother glared at her, sharp and vicious. “We are being whispered about. In the streets! Mrs Kensington cut me in the park yesterday. Me! I want you gone from here and forgotten. You will find yourself a werewolf, girl. You aren’t good enough for a human man. Not even an English one.”
Faith hung her head. She wants me shamed for the rest of my life. Tied forever to the same supernatural creatures that deceived and ruined me. All because she is being whispered about this month in a minor scandal that will be forgotten by summer.
So it was that Faith, with only her maid Minnie as chaperone, and last season’s dresses (which might themselves be considered a chaperone, for the discouragement that they afforded) and a few outfits Faith had made in secret (even more discouraging to prospective suitors, as these involved menswear), were packed into a dirigible and floated off to England. Properly, Mrs Wigglesworth ought to have gone along, but Faith’s mother obviously thought nothing worse could happen to her daughter.
She was, of course, entirely wrong.
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Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Defy or Defend. If you enjoyed it, or if you would like to read more about any of my characters, please say so in a review. I’m grateful for the time you take to do so.
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Author Afterthoughts
Before you ask, Defy or Defend is indeed an ode to the fantastic Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Try the charming book or the adorable movie. You won’t be sorry. I always knew Cold Comfort Farm was a reverse Gothic, but it wasn’t until I started researching for this book that I realized it was also a makeover story.
I do love a makeover and so, it turns out, does Dimity.
Dimity is an ode to my (as Dimity would put it) true friend Phrannish. Whom we all knew would end up in a Gothic novel with a tuppenny knight at some point. Sorry it took me so long. Not sorry I turned velvet into the bad guy (insert evil laugh here).
The Corgi puppy is based off my first Corgi friend, Mr Chumley Zimmerman, combined with the charming Corbin Drake. Find more about Corbin via my lovely author friend, Piper J Drake.
Budgy Hall is based on the Lace Market Hotel in downtown Nottingham. Yes, it does in fact overlook an old graveyard, but I promise, it’s not gloomy at all, and is a lovely place to stay. Nottingham is, in fact, riddled with limestone caves. It’s always been strange to me that none of the many Robin Hood retellings mention them. When I lived there, I worked inside one. And that’s all you get to hear about that. A girl’s gotta have some secrets.
The epilogue in this story was originally written for Manners & Mutiny, the final Finishing School book. I pulled it from M&M because I wanted to write the Delightfully Deadly series. And... here we are.
Did all the Finishing School young ladies get epilogues?
Why, yes. Yes, they did.
Thank you for reading, my dear ones. May we all find our safety and our sparkles, in whatever form they take.
More Gail Carriger?
You’ve just read a story set in Miss Gail’s steampunk Parasolverse. Characters cross over a lot! You could play a rousing game of spot that wicker chicken.
STORIES SET IN GAIL’S STEAMPUNK PARASOLVERSE
The Delightfully Deadly Stories
Stand-alones featuring polite lady assassins
The Supernatural Society Stories
LGBTQ stand-alones with proper subversive activities
The Claw & Courtship Stories
Stand-alones featuring werewolves in cravats and the ladies who love them
The Finishing School Series
Young adult novels featuring spies, girl power, and flying food
The Parasol Protectorate Series
The books that started it all featuring adventure, love, and silly hats
The Custard Protocol Series
Spin-off books featuring world travel, cat shifters, and stolen tea
The Curious Case of the Werewolf That Wasn’t
Short story set in steampunk Egypt, featuring one sexy and rather unpleasant Italian
GAIL’S OTHER WORKS
Fairy Debt
YA fantasy comedy short story featuring girl power and dragons who hoard cupcakes
My Sister’s Song
High fantasy historical short story featuring a warrior woman taking on a Roman legion alone
AS G. L. CARRIGER
The San Andreas Shifter Series
Stand alone novels in which every werewolf is fabulous - full of blue jokes, raunchy sex, and gentle hearts
The 5th Gender
The sweetest most charming purple alien of the all.
Marine Biology: San Andreas Shifter Prequel
Short story in which a geeky werewolf meets hot merman
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About the Writerbeast
New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger writes to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small-town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in higher learning, a fondness for cephalopods, and a chronic tea habit. She then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She resides in the Colonies, surrounded by fantastic shoes, where she insists on tea imported from London.
G A I L C A R R I G E R L L C
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, used in a fictitious manner, or in the public domain. Any resemblance to actual events or actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
WARNING
This work of fiction may contain sexually explicit situations of a romantic and carnal nature between members of the same sex, opposite sex, or both. If love (in its many forms) and love’s consequences (in even more varied forms) are likely to offend, please do not read this book. Miss Carriger has a young adult quartet, the Finishing School series, that may be more to your taste. Thank you for your understanding, self-awareness, and self-control.
Copyright © 2020 by GAIL CARRIGER LLC
Excerpt from How to Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger
Copyright © 2018 by GAIL CARRIGER, LLC
Cover photo © LADY LOVE LLOYD CREATIONS, lll-creations.com
Cover assembled by Starla Huchton, designedbystarla.com
Digital formatting by Nina Pierce of Seaside Publications
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Gail Carriger, Defy or Defend