Duchess — Josephine Edgar

They call her Duchess, even though Viola Corbett is really an illegitimate shopgirl. But nobility is more than bloodlines, and the tall, auburn-haired Viola has something most real duchesses lack: a stunning beauty and grace that awe the other shopgirls -- and bring the gentlemen of turn-of-the-century London to her feet.

Four men are in love with Duchess: Sam Hardcastle, the gentle Leeds shopowner who has to send her away to London; Lord James Staffray, the dashing young officer who has everything -- money, prestige, adventure and an irresistible longing for Viola; Arthur Netherby, the cruel, tormented owner of the "live-in" store where Duchess works; and finally, Count Eugene Erhmann, the worldly Austrian who foresees that the lovely girl will become a magnificent woman.

But Duchess wants only one man, an aristocrat whose family will never consent to marriage. Nothing can make her more than a common shopgirl in their eyes -- nothing, and certainly not her past: her splendid, needless affair; her illegitimate child; and her scandalous trial for murder.