In 1871, Chicago, Delia Spencer is attending a ball, even
though she is only seventeen years old, she feels herself
being drawn to Marshall Field who owns a dry goods place
where all top society women go to purchase their clothing.
Marshall always has the newest designs from France and
other worldly countries. When Delia finds out that
Marshall
is thirty seven, she does not turn away from Marsh's
flirtations, nor does he from hers. But when Delia finds
out that Marsh is married with two children, she is very
much aware that she must let this attraction go and
continue on with her young life. When Marsh asks Delia to
dance at the ball, she accepts graciously and finds
herself
looking into his eyes and falling even more in love with
him. As they are dancing, many people at the ball are
walking towards the windows, alarmed as to what they see.
Chicago is on fire! Both Delia and Marsh go to the
windows and cannot believe their eyes, it's been dry with
little rain and now a large fire is burning most of
Chicago.
After the fire is contained and stopped, many have lost
their businesses, homes and even lives. Delia's
family home is burnt to the ground and her family moves
into a relative's house until their new one is built. She
does not see Marsh for quite some time, until she gets
word
that Marsh has opened another dry goods store. She as all
the women in society make their way to Marsh's new store
and purchase new clothes for all had been burnt in the
fire. Each time Delia runs into Marsh, they both feel
that
spark between them, but Delia will not make the
mistake of being Marsh's mistress, she's too young and
must
start her own life.
She marries Arthur, a life long friend
and as the years pass, Delia cannot understand why Arthur
does not want to spend time in the marriage bed. As time
goes by, Marsh and his family become neighbors of Delia
and
Arthur's. They get together in each other's homes trying
to
seal friendships, but Marsh's wife Nannie is extremely
jealous of Delia and Delia has kept her distance from
Marsh.
Not only is Nannie jealous, but she's addicted to
Laudanum and her mental status is quite shakey. When
Nannie
takes her children off to visit her family in the
Northeast, Marsh and Arthur become very close friends and
eventually they start to include Delia. On one occaision
both Marsh and Delia find out that Arthur is gay. This
pushes both Delia and Marsh even closer together, in fact,
so close they start having an affair in Delia's home with
Arthur's knowledge of it. As long as both Marsh and Delia
include Arthur in their outings.
Nannie is always coming and going, away on these trips.
Apparently, her marriage to Marsh has become very rocky
and
Nannie becomes more and more out of her mind crazy. She
performs some very horrible crimes to some of the
characters in the book. I will not give any spoilers, but
this woman who over does her drugs has truly lost her mind
and is frightfully scarey. When Marsh tells Nannie that
he's having an affair with Delia, it only gets worse, how
much worse? Oh, you can never imagine how much worse, but
Marsh and Delia still carry one their affair, even walking
hand in hand in public and they both don't care what
society thinks or says. Many years pass by filled with
tragiedies, rebulding both their city and their lives and
triumph. But will Delia and Marsh be able to live a decent
loving life together? Have children and go their own way
together? A recommended read!
WHAT THE LADY WANTS by Renee Rosen drew me in from page
one
as Ms. Rosen is an author one does not want to miss!
In late-nineteenth-century Chicago, visionary retail
tycoon
Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers
with
his famous motto: “Give the lady what she wants.”
His
legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia
Spencer and led to an infamous love affair.
The night of the Great Fire, as
seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and
consume
what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can’t imagine
how
much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to
change. Nor can she guess that the agent of that
change
will not simply be the fire, but more so the man she meets
that night.…
Leading the way in rebuilding
after
the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods
store and transforms it into something the world has never
seen before: a glamorous palace of a department
store. He and his powerhouse coterie—including Potter
Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber
barons,
the American royalty of their generation.
But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled
with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn
to each other out of loneliness, but as their love
deepens,
they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism,
through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an
adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White
City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.
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