Excerpt of A Groom of One's Own by Maya Rodale

“Newssheets! Only seven pence!” cried a young man standing
at the corner with a stack of newspapers.

“Get yer copy of The London Weekly!” he hollered, this
time to the captive audience of dozens of people waiting
to cross the street, including Sophie and Brandon.

“Do you read such rubbish, Miss Harlow? Or are you
particular to The Times?” Brand asked. Sophie managed a
tight smile while thinking Oh, hell and damnation.

Not only did she read The Weekly, but she wrote for it.
She could not admit to that, nor could pride allow her to
acknowledge The Times, archrival to her own paper, as
worthy of her attentions. Nor did she wish to lie and said
she did not read a paper at all. It would be horrible for
Mr. Brandon to think her uninformed, or a fool. She so
wanted to impress him.

“I believe most of London reads that rubbish,” she said.
When the path was clear, he pressed his hand at the small
of her back to guide her through the crowds, and she
experienced a shiver of pleasure.

“That is the truth. The Weekly is the one with those
scandalous Writing Girls, writing about yet more
scandals?”

“The very one,” Sophie answered, thinking that Mr.
Knightly, proprietor of the paper, would love that
description. “And what is your opinion of those scribbling
women?”

Everyone in town had something to say on the matter. She’d
never been so keen to know what anyone thought until now.

“I think it is scandalous, but far preferable to some of
the other options available to a woman,” Brandon answered
and Sophie smiled broadly. He would understand her chant
of Seamstress or servant; governess or mistress. She was
about to tell him that she was one of those scandalous
women writing about scandal, but then—

“Of course,” he continued. “I’d probably feel differently
if the woman in question was one of my sisters, or my
wife.”

Sophie was, unfortunately, reacquainted with the sensation
of hopes crashing and one’s heart sinking.

“Do you have a wife?”

“No,” he said, and she waited for him to say “however,”
or “but” or to anything to send her hopes and heart into a
tailspin, but he did not, and she dared to dream and
entertain thoughts of This One.