An Island Princess Starts a Scandal

When Manuela del Carmen Caceres Galvan travels to Paris with her circle of best friends, she’s there ostensibly to showcase her paintings at the 1889 Exposition Universelle, but also to enjoy all the delights available to her as a sapphic woman in one final fling before entering an arranged marriage. For the Duchess of Sundridge, Cora Kempf Bristol, Manu is both the exciting and delicious woman she found exploring her private chamber at the house of pleasure she frequents and the one person in the way of finalizing a deal that will forever secure her fortune and position as a savvy business woman amongst men. Manu holds the deed to the last and most vital parcel of Venezuelan land Cora must secure to finish a South American railway project. To please the stubborn heiress, Cora agrees to a scandalous proposal—Manu’s land in exchange for one summer of immersion in Cora’s corner of Paris—and maybe even Cora herself.