The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place (34 page)

Though they’re attired in plumage gay;

Something to charm you all must know,

Apart from fine features and outward show—

A talent, a grace, a gift of mind,

Or else poor beauty is left behind!

While the small birds sing in their own true words,

“’Tis not fine feathers make fine birds!”

To my mind, fine feathers may or may not make fine birds, but fine
readers
always do, and on that point I imagine even Dour Elinor and Disgraceful Mary Jane could agree. Thanks, fine birds, for reading along with me.

Scandalously yours,

Julie Berry

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Shawn Cannon, director of the Cannon Theatre in Littleton, Massachusetts, staged British farce after British farce until finally I cried, “Enough! I must write one!” Thank you, Shawn, for keeping the arts alive in my family and community.

Professor John Sutherland, author and Emeritus Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College, London, published a series of lectures titled “Classics of British Literature” with the Great Courses company, a course I’ve devoured many times. A fragment he uttered in a
Pride and Prejudice
lecture stopped me in in my tracks one day: “A regiment of maidens.”
Oh
, I thought.
Now that’s a book I need to write.

Jamie Larsen, Julia Bringhurst Blake, and Heather Marx shared my Ely travels and their lives and hearts with me. I would be lost, in Europe and in general, without such dear friends.

Deirdre Langeland and Katherine Jacobs of Roaring Brook Press had the great good humor to love this story and help it become the fizzy romp I meant it to be. Sharing this book with them has been a delight. Others at Roaring Brook, including Jill Freshney, Elizabeth Clark, and Simon Boughton, brought tremendous talent and support to the project. Alyssa Henkin, my agent, has the never-ending
f
lexibility to roll with my ideas and champion them. I’m grateful. Iacopo Bruno’s delicious artwork lends panache to the book, and to each of the scandalous sisters.

Finally, my husband, Phil, whose charms rival Officer Quill’s and Darling Julius’s combined, merits my undying thanks for having the courage to tell me when he doesn’t like a draft, and when he does.