A Taste of Honey by Lindsay Kiernan Page A

favorite choice of Robin's for Katherine, as he was too sedate for her.  He was in good health for being nearly fifty-five and relatively handsome with a few gray streaks to his hair.  As Katherine danced with him, she could only think about the fact that he was older than her own father.  Robin had accused Katherine of being too picky when she called him old, despite the fact that she too had declined interest in the man.
    “Few men of great influence, power, and money are very young,” Robin chided her.
    “I don't care, he may be a kindly man but I am not going to marry someone who could die of old age before I reach forty,” Katherine said.
    “Then you would be an influential widower and could marry whoever you wanted to.  That is not a bad plan to have,” Robin countered before running off to the dance floor with her next partner.
    Robin's only repeated partner, Mr. Holbrook had a small estate in London and a much larger one on the border of Scotland, but Robin hated the cold weather up north and after their second dance she quickly dismissed him as a serious choice.
    One of Katherine's favorites was Oliver Buckman, the heir to a rich Lord who was held in high esteem, and a force to be reckoned with in London's high society.   However, Oliver's own experience and intelligence left much to be desired, and until his quite healthy and virile father's death, he was without a title and had little of his own wealth to speak of as he had a habit of spending anything that he received from his father.
    At all times, the girls were cocooned with old matrons and anxious young women searching for the man that their mother or chaperone would approve of.  For this reason any man who approached either twin came from solid backgrounds and had made a name as a good respectable person.
    Of course there were other types of men present, those who did not have easily discussed backgrounds and businesses.  Katherine watched Robin's eyes stray to a different corner of the room whenever she danced closer to that group.
    It was a more boisterous section, where the men talked a little too loudly and an occasional word of profanity escaped their circle when voices were raised above the usual din of the room.  All of this made it easy to spot the men who were considered part of London's scandalous new money, the very people that Mrs. Brentley had warned them against.
    Most of them came to the events to speak to the influential men in parliament.  They would encourage the politicians to vote on bills that would help their businesses and allow them to make more money.  Sometimes money was even passed during such exchanges.  Some of the rich new men were able to find wives amongst the higher circles, often as part of a business alliance, but most did not care to marry into the blue blood of London's elite.  A few of the roughish men might never take a wife at all, sticking with mistresses and other less cultured women to keep company with.
    Katherine wondered if some of the loud and impolite women draped over the men's arms might be their mistresses, who were never supposed to be taken out into public.  Not that the men seemed to show any respect for the rest of the customs of London's elite society.
    Watching the odd group, Katherine could see why Mrs. Brentley had strong feelings against marrying such men.  They had not grown up with the same rules and therefore did not play the upper society's games as they were expected to.  Most titled families would rather go penniless than be shamed by working for a living. Keeping their self respect, even if it meant losing everything they had once owned.  Rich American women preyed upon such men, offering them wealth in the exchange of a sought after title that the women couldn't find back home.
    The new money men didn't care about titles the way that their female counterparts did.  They found that wealth was powerful enough.  Some of the underhanded business deals they did everyday