City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

An American beauty, Shana Abé

eng

Adult

fiction

An American beauty

Shana Abé

A Novel of the Gilded Age

1867, Richmond, Virginia. Though she wears the same low-cut purple gown that is the uniform of all the girls who work at Worsham's gambling parlor, Arabella stands apart. It's not merely her statuesque beauty and practiced charm. Even at 17, Arabella possesses an unyielding grit, and a resolve to escape her background of struggle and poverty. Collis Huntington, railroad baron and self-made multimillionaire, is drawn to Arabella from their first meeting. Collis is married and 30 years her senior, yet they are well-matched in temperament, and flirtation rapidly escalates into an affair. With Collis's help, Arabella eventually moves to New York, posing as a genteel, well-to-do Southern widow and she begins to amass a fortune. Their relationship is an open secret, and no one is surprised when Collis marries Arabella after his wife's death. But 'The Four Hundred' - the elite circle that includes the Astors and Vanderbilts - have their rules. Arabella must earn her place in Society. There are some who suspect the scandalous truth, and will blackmail her for it. And then there is another threat - an unexpected, impossible romance that will test her ambition, her loyalties and her heart ..

adult