Miss Fiona’s Fancy - One - Regency Highlands social life introduction

Jul 30, 2026

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Miss Fiona’s Fancy (chapter one) opens in the Regency period, contrasting the romantic curiosity of English society with the unfamiliar, still-traditional way of life among Scottish aristocracy. Fiona Grant, daughter of Sir Edward and Lady Grant, lives at Strathglass House near Inverness and moves through a remote Highland world of forests, ponies, and rigid domestic duties. Popular and charming, Fiona carries a key flaw: her inherited gambling habits, setting up the social pressures and personal tensions that shape events around her upcoming nineteenth-birthday ball.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages141

Reading Time3 h 37 min

One

Fiona Grant’s world and background

The family home, habits, and social setting

Preparation for Fiona’s birthday ball

Miss Fiona’s Fancy M. C. Beaton/ Marion Chesney [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Copyright Miss Fiona’s Fancy Copyright ©1987 by Marion Chesney Cover art to the electronic edition copyright © 2011 by RosettaBooks, LLCAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First electronic edition published 2011 by RosettaBooks LLC, New York. ISBN Mobipocket edition: 9780795321078 [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) For Felicia Villiers With love [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Contents One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) ONE Although Walter Scott’s poetry was just beginning to make the Highlands of Scotland a romantic place in the eyes of the ton, very few members of Regency society would dream of leaving their overheated saloons and clubs to go and see the place for themselves. And so most of them remained unaware that the Scottish aristocracy and gentry still lived in a manner alien to their English counterparts. On the other hand, many members of the Scottish upper classes were familiar with the hectic London Season, making the long journey each year in the hopes of finding suitable husbands for their daughters. But at least one daughter of the Scottish landed gentry remained, as yet, blissfully unaware of the competition, the snobbery, and the rigid social rules among English society. Her name was Fiona Grant, and she lived with her parents, Sir Edward and Lady Grant, in a large ancient mansion, Strathglass House, located some miles outside Inverness and surrounded by deep pine forests. Fiona was very popular. She had an open, easy manner and was quite unaware of her great beauty. She had thick chestnut hair that burned with tiny fiery red lights like sparks from a peat fire on a frosty night. Her complexion was flawless and her wide eyes were very green—not hazel, but as green as a cat’s. The one great flaw in her personality was that she had inherited her father ’s addiction to gambling. Sir Edward was a lawyer, having been brought up at a time when the French Revolution had caused tremors of fear to run through the British upper classes, and just in case Britain should follow the French example, he had, like many of his kind, been trained to a profession. Like Fiona, he was spared the hells of heavy gambling because of geographical circumstances. The only neighbors with any money were too far distant to make more than two or three calls a year and the servants and tenants were too poor. Fiona gambled with the maids, using paper spills for money, each spill representing one hundred guineas, while her father was often reduced to playing cards with Angus Robertson, his piper, for shillings, not a very rewarding pastime, for if he won, he had to pay the piper, and if he lost, Angus would merely disappear into the hills for a week until such time ashe considered his master might have forgotten the debt. The fact that the Grants could do with more money was evident in the style in which they lived. Very little had been done to modernize the mansion, and the kitchen was still a disgraceful building of turf tacked onto the back of the house with holes in the turf roof open to the sky to let the smoke out, for there was no chimney. One day a mouse had fallen off the rafters into the soup and Lady Grant had vowed to tear down the kitchen and build a new one, but nothing had come of it. In the Highland manner, the Grants sheltered many dependents under their roof. Fiona’s old nurse lived in the attics, along with her governess, and two housemaids, too old to continue in service. Then there were various relatives, such as two half-pay captains and three maiden aunts, who had come on a visit a long time ago and showed no signs of leaving. Fion

FAQs

Who is Fiona Grant and where does she live?

Fiona Grant is the daughter of Sir Edward and Lady Grant. She lives with her family at Strathglass House near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

What personal flaw does Fiona inherit from her father?

Fiona inherits her father’s addiction to gambling, which influences how games and money troubles appear in their household.

What event is Fiona looking forward to in this chapter?

She looks forward to her nineteenth-birthday ball, held that very evening in the banqueting hall after preparations involving the dancers’ sets.

Jul 30, 2026

Upload by Noah