Georgianna Balmoral: The neck of her dress was cut straight across

Please note that I’ve now changed the character’s name from Victoria Balmoral to Georgianna Balmoral.


New Year’s Eve 1899 – how exciting for Georgianna and Evie. They arrived, separately, to the cotillion in their parents’ carriages. Georgianna boasted a heavy white and blue brocade dress, a small train behind her with a silver coronet, her mother’s engagement diamond in the center. Georgianna was proud of her narrow waist and how the dress showed it off to perfection.

She hoped Evie noticed. Her fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes complemented Victoria’s blonde locks, brought into sharp display by the high neckline of her dress, cut straight across, throwing her face and jutting chin into stark display. They made a pretty pair, Georgianna Tasker and Evie Whitford.

“Darling, your dress is quite the picture of beauty,” Evie told her as they tallied their dance cards with names of eligible suitors such as Morgan, Bixler, Roosevelt, Whitney, and Astor. “You shall surely catch the eyes of all the young men here tonight.”

“It is not my wish to catch their eyes when I already have the eye of the one who matters,” she winked at her friend, dazzled by the smooth, fair beauty of her complexion.

“That is lovely of you to say, my lovely friend. Why, do look at Henry Winthrop! He is quite the handsome catch with his handlebar moustache.”

“I understand he has gone to the drink,” Georgianna replied, frowning. She had no interest in the foppish Winthrop. Where men were concerned, Georgianna preferred the quiet ones, those who squired a lady without much fuss.

But, she reflected, she much preferred her quiet evenins alone with Evie, their flights of fancy, late at night, when all the families had gone to bed and the two of them had retreated behind the lacy white curtains of Evie’s four-poster bed.