The Purpose of Miss Shepley

Genre: fantasy

Edith Shepley looks like a Wyrm.

She takes after her father, whoever he was, but that doesn't change things. She is a proper Folk lady nonetheless, trained from the cradle to govern as Baroness of Ewert someday. And she knows her duty.

Now a woman at sixteen years old, Edith must marry and beget Ewert's next heir. She obediently considers suitor after suitor, some sweet, some baffling, some detestable. But the more she sees of her mother's society, the more Edith questions whether she really is a Folk lady, after all. And the more she's stung by its insults, its injuries and injustices, the more she doubts she really wants to be.

There are advantages to being a Wyrm, in truth. To begin with, Wyrm girls have much more fun.