Her Grace Eleanor, Duchess of Haverford, once hoped to marry the third son of the Duke of Winshire, James Winderfield. The connection was not illustrious enough for her father, the Earl of Creydon, and one of his close friends had also expressed an interest in the girl.
When that friend, the Duke of Haverford, insulted Eleanor in the hearing of her beloved, James challenged the Duke to a duel. The Duke was wounded and James’s father forced him to flee England.
Eleanor held out against her father’s pressure for a long time, but when word came that James had been killed in Persia, she married the Duke of Haverford to get away from her father’s bullying. The Duke’s bullying was much worse.
However, over the years, and particularly since she gave him two sons, Eleanor has learned to manage her life with little interference from her husband. She takes pleasure in helping Haverford poor relations, taking an interest in her vast array of godchildren, supporting philanthropic causes (particularly the education of women) and being an active guardian of her dear wards, three half-sisters who are all base-born daughters of her husband the duke.
