Octavia Marshall is the heroine of my latest novel, A VERY MODERN MARRIAGE...
She is the third and final woman in the trio who make up the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy and as much a part of the house as Louisa and Nancy whose stories I wrote before Octavia's. She is by far the most serious-natured of the three and also the least trusting having been badly let down by her father - a man she once held above all others.
A Very Modern Marriage sees Octavia travel from the backstreets of Victorian Bath to the cotton mills of Manchester - no easy feat for a woman (a prostitute, no less) in the mid 19th century. Yet, Octavia is no ordinary woman. In fact, to me, she is extraordinary...
Here are a few facts about my latest favourite lady:
1) Octavia was born to a wealthy and landed family, raised in privilege and propriety in the English county of Oxfordshire.
2) When her mother died and her father changed beyond recognition, she fled home entirely alone and deeply afraid, eventually making her way to the city of Bath.
3) She fell into prostitution as a means to survive - living on the streets rather than succumbing to the demands of a pimp or brothel madam.
4) Books are her passion and escape - her mainstay.
5) She relies on her education, intelligence and wilfil determination whatever the situation, and especially if it can benefit her new and only friends in the whole world - Louisa and Nancy.
He needs a wife...
Manchester industrialist William Rose was a poor lad from the slums who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but in order to achieve his greatest ambitions he must become the epitome of Victorian respectability: a family man.
She has a plan...
But the only woman who's caught his eye is sophisticated beauty Octavia Marshall, one of the notorious ladies of Carson Street. Though she was once born to great wealth and privilege, she's hardly respectable, but she's determined to invest her hard-earned fortune in Mr Rose's mills and forge a new life as an entirely proper businesswoman.
They strike a deal that promises them both what they desire the most, but William's a fool if he thinks Octavia will be a conventional married woman, and she's very much mistaken if she thinks the lives they once led won't follow them wherever they go.
In the third instalment of Rachel Brimble's exciting Victorian saga series, The Ladies of Carson Street will open the doors on a thoroughly modern marriage – and William is about to get a lot more than he bargained for...
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