I’ve been squeezed into this dress, taught the proper way to hold a fish knife, drilled in how to properly flutter my fan and laugh on command...and it’s all for nothing. Such a tragedy, truly.

Well, I do speak freely. But what have I said that was a lie? This evening is a failure for my parents’ plans for me to snare them a lord who is desperate for money...

Oh, please, sir! I know my suitors are only interested in the remarkable size of my assets...

...by which I mean, my father's fortune.

He seeks some Old World respectability, and the gentry here seek money, after discovering that one cannot pay the servants with legacy and a proud name. And so, like so many other American heiresses, I am the means for both of them to solve their problems.

Married off for the sake of a title! I was under the impression we fought a war or two with Britain to STOP doing that sort of thing.

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The speaker is an "American Dollar Princess", a term coined in the late 1800's when wealthy Americans would try to marry their daughters off to English aristocrats who found themselves short of money. An outsider at the ball she has been invited to, she is quite happy to be ignored, with little patience for the games of courtship...especially since the man she was meant to be getting introduced to never appeared! She does strike up a conversation with a mysterious stranger though, and something about her candour has him quite charmed. But can her persuade this feisty and hot-blooded American woman to consider his very tempting offer?

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Script Link (Scriptbin, 2537 words with the longer of the two endings)

My Unfilled Scripts & Fills Of My Scripts

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Fancy balls, English aristocracy, mistaken identities, a spirited young female protagonist and the rogue who thinks he can handle her feisty and independent nature...it's a classic, right? Feedback welcome as always, and hope you enjoy it!