Lady Frederica Felton, or Freddie to her friends, is poised to return to Mapleton Manor boarding school for Sixth Form. After a summer at home in Monaco, Freddie is more than ready to see her friends again…and she’ll find herself in numerous escapades along the way, collecting wristbands as she goes.
Midnight feasts, great escapes and ghost stories—life at Mapleton Manor is anything but boring, especially for someone like Freddie. Whilst fiercely loyal and fun loving, she is the go-to girl for contraband and fashion advice. Freddie is the girl to know.
But the next couple of years won’t all be fun and games. As well as exam pressure there are rotten teachers to contend with, and a friend Freddie isn’t so sure has her best interests at heart…
There are difficult choices to be made. First love to experience. Heartbreak to be had. But with her friends at her side and her fearless nature, will Freddie take her world by storm?
General Release Date: 12th May 2016
The sunlight streamed into the room, warming my outstretched foot where I’d kicked the sheet off in the night. Blowing thick strands of long blonde hair out of my face, I burrowed deeper into the plush, soft pillow and tried to slip back into the delicious dream starring Leonardo DiCaprio I’d reluctantly been pulled out of.
A soft breeze stirred the gossamer thin curtains, a heady scent drifting into the room—a mixture of fresh sea air and vibrant floral perfume that I always associated with home in Monaco. Inhaling another deep, relaxing breath, I snuggled further down into the mattress, trying to make myself boneless and languid.
A sharp crack sounded through the house.
My eyelids flew open. Disappearing back into that dream—that I really wanted to know the ending to—was no longer an option.
“Daddy,” I whispered before flinging off the sheets and leaping from the bed. My feet met the blue-carpeted floor and I skidded on the yellow sundress I’d left discarded in a heap the night before. I launched myself out of the room then rushed down the corridors.
All around, the house was abuzz with activity. Aimee pottered around in the kitchen, which was her domain—the usual sounds of dishes chinking and conversation with the gardener, M. Vincent, drifted out into the hallway. Somewhere out of sight, Mummy scolded Louisa for staining yet another pristine white dress with sticky fingers coated in jam.
Rounding a corner, I collided with a body and crashed into the sideboard. My elbow smarted from the impact.
Augustus steadied himself and flashed me a glare. “Freddie! Watch where you’re going, will you?” Only last year Augustus would have been knocked to the floor at such a collision. But age combined with a mammoth growth spurt over the summer had made my younger brother catch up with me in height. He was starting to fill out, his young body maturing into the man it would one day become. The ladies had better watch out when that day came—at fourteen Augustus already showed the signs of a face that had the potential to break hearts.
Augustus resembled our father, with dark hair and tall build, unlike Louisa who took after our mother, with a slim, willowy figure and glossy blonde hair that we both possessed. Mummy had gifted all her children with her ocean grey-green eyes. I was an even mixture of both my parents. Mummy had given me her slim build and Daddy had blessed me, his oldest daughter, with his great height. At sixteen I was already five feet eight and expected to continue shooting up for another few years yet.
“Sorry,” I said on a breath as I turned to continue my original course. “Daddy’s at it with the air rifle again.”
Augustus’ eyebrows shot up into his dark hairline. “Does Samantha know?”
I grimaced. “I don’t know. Better go fetch her, just in case. He’s going to end up getting one of them accidentally sooner or later.”
Augustus nodded, and I hurried off in the opposite direction, rushing down the marble staircase.
Outside my father’s office door, I took a deep breath and steeled myself for what I might find on entering. Unable to put off the inevitable forever, I tapped on the door before turning the handle and slipping inside.
Daddy sat in his usual blue satin chair at his desk, his eyes pinned on the garden beyond the wide, open French doors that led outside. He twisted in my direction at the sound of my bare feet on the floor and placed his rifle back in its usual spot under his desk. “Another pest got in again.”
Letting out a reproachful breath, I said, “Oh, Daddy.”
Daddy waved my young concern away with a flick of his hand. “Don’t ‘oh, Daddy,’ me, Frederica. If the dratted things stopped coming into my garden then I’d simply stop shooting at them.”
I nodded, knowing it would be another useless conversation to beg him to stop. We’d had it countless times and his conviction never changed. Walking towards the garden, I squeezed his shoulder as I passed. With my feet on the warm patio stone, I froze to the spot and covered my mouth with my hand as a shocked gasp escaped me.
Instead of seeing a skittish, frightened cat, I saw a dead one.
The body was just in front of the hedgerow that the unfortunate soul had climbed over, not knowing that in doing so it had sealed its fate at the hands of my father and that rifle.
A lump formed in my throat and my eyes stung. The poor creature…
Squatting beside it, I didn’t need to touch it to check if it was still alive. The glassy, vacant look in its eyes and unfurled, hanging tongue told me that it was as dead as it could be.
Poor cat.
I wished our neighbour would either stop breeding them—because they inevitably got curious and decided to check out our little patch of the world—or that my father would stop shooting at them for invading his garden. It wasn’t that he had set out to kill the poor thing. Daddy shot at the cats to warn them off, to frighten them enough that they wouldn’t come back.
But I suppose this time the cat had moved, as they are often wont to do, and put itself right in the firing line.
Daddy, clearly, had not even realised that he had hit this one—knowing Daddy he would have fretted over my reaction, been worried over how upset I would be and he made no mention of it when I was in the room.
Swiping away a stray tear, I released a heavy sigh and checked under the hedge. The trap my father had concocted was thankfully empty. On more than one occasion I’d fashioned a jailbreak before Daddy had noticed that a cat had become trapped and set about scaring it away.
I headed back inside the house. My father had returned to his usual position, hunched over the papers on his desk. He wasn’t the sort of man to rest on his laurels. As well as being a member of several important leagues and clubs, he adored being in the thick of things and fighting for a cause he believed in with all his heart. His cheerful and dedicated personality made him a perfect character for the important positions he held.
I loved my father dearly, even if our views on animals couldn’t have been more different. Where my siblings and I adored all creatures great and small, Daddy couldn’t stand them. Which was why he had no idea about Duke, the cocker spaniel that we had had for two years. It paid to live in a more-than-spacious home like ours.
He paid me no notice as I passed by him on my way back through into the main house. Augustus and Samantha met me in the corridor outside Daddy’s office.
Samantha, our nanny, took one look at my crestfallen expression and shook her head, a resigned look on her face. “I’ll get the shovel.”
Lady Victoria Hervey is known for being a model, socialite and aristocrat. Daughter of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, Lady Victoria led a privileged life until she chose to pursue her dream of becoming a model. In her career, she notably modelled for Christian Dior. Lady Victoria was the author of the popular party animal diary column, ‘Victoria’s Secrets’ in The Sunday Times, which gave readers an insight into the life of a London socialite.
2016 sees Lady Victoria releasing her first fiction novel and embracing a new direction in her career as an author.
You can take a look at Lady Victoria's Microsite to find out more.
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