About Eleanor's Gamble
Eleanor Booth needs two things from London: a million-pound loan to save her family’s mining venture, and absolute certainty that her embarrassing adolescent crush on Charles Doherty is dead and buried.
Armed with ledgers, sharp wit, and American resolve, Eleanor has no intention of relying on aristocratic patronage. But London’s banking titans refuse to take an independent woman seriously. Worse still, the boy she once idolized is now the Earl of Porthenge—infuriatingly handsome, fiercely protective, and entirely too eager to play the hero.
Inheriting the earldom was supposed to reform Charles. Instead, he is nursing the sting of betrayal from an ambitious ex-mistress and quietly carrying the weight of his fractured family. Risking his estate to back Eleanor’s venture is an impulsive gamble to prove his worth. Falling for the woman who sees straight through his polished veneer is a luxury he cannot afford.
Swept from smoky gin palaces to high-stakes ballrooms and radical suffragist rallies, their reluctant truce ignites into undeniable passion. But just as Charles prepares to wager everything on a future together, an explosive secret from his past threatens to destroy Eleanor's trust.
Now, Eleanor must decide whether walking away is her only defense—or if love is the one risk worth taking.
Thanks to the organizers and judges of the I Am Writing 2026 competition for shortlisting Eleanor's Gamble in both romance and history categories, finishing second in history.
Cast of Characters
Real historical figures in italics
Characters who appear in other New Women of Mayfair novels feature in parentheses.
London
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Eleanor Booth: twenty three years old, back in London after spending seven years in New York with her mining tycoon father after the death of her mother.
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Charles Doherty, Earl Porthenge: twenty nine years old, ten years into a reputation as a Mayfair heart-breaker, but just had his own heart broken by Arabella Hoxton. Recently succeeded to the Earldom and trying to look after his depressed mother and headstrong younger sister.
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Lady Esmerelda Doherty, Charles’s mother
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Margaret Doherty, Charles’s sister
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James Louth, Charles’s best friend
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Bobbit, the Porthenge’s footman
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Sullivan, the Porthenge groom
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Cyrus, Charles’s favourite stallion
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Lady Arabella Windermere, nee Hoxton (Georgia's Lesson)
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Lord Windermere
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Sholto Darks, man-about-town and hanger-on of Lady Windermere
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John Latham, Barings’ banker
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Emmeline Latham, his wife
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Mary Neal, social worker, suffragist/suffragette, co-founder of the Esperance Club and researcher into Morris Dancing and English folk music (Georgia’s Lesson)
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Amelia, Mary, Rose Esperance girls (Amelia appears in Georgia's Lesson)
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Agnes McKenzie, suffragist (Isabella’s Mission)
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Mulcaster, man-about-town (Isabella’s Mission)
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Sir Matthew Ridley, Home Secretary (later Prime Minister)
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Ma Mayfield’s (Brideshead, really Kate Meyrick)
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Reverend Roger Ricketts, vicar
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Lady Desdemona Braithwaite (Isabella’s Mission)
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Lady Florence Dixie, Scottish writer, feminist, travel writer and President of the British Ladies’s Football Club (Isabella’s Mission)
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George and Mickey, Leicester Square louts
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Jemima, Marcioness of Dungeness; Gwendolyn; Countess Hyacinth of the Marches - friends of Arabella Windermere (Gwendolyn appears in Georgia's Lesson)
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Madame X - a portrait by John Singer Sargent
Scottish Highlands
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Mrs Spark, Porthenge family housekeeper
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Thomas McVie, Elder
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Mr Cusak, master mason
Manhattan
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Henry Booth, Eleanor’s father
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Octavian Winthrop, New York millionaire
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Cyril, Eleanor’s secretary
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Mrs Van Horn, Manhattan socialite and philanthropist
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Emmeline Pethick (later Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence), colleague of Mary Neal and co-founder of the Esperance Club
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Henry Booth, Eleanor’s father
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Octavian Winthrop, New York millionaire
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Cyril, Eleanor’s secretary
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Mrs Van Horn, Manhattan socialite and philanthropist
Historical context, influences & guide to locations
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Historical Context - Learn more about this exciting and unsettling time of change.
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Influences & Research Notes - Take a look at some of the books I used for my research and get some ideas for further reading.
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Peoples, Places & Peculiarities - Here's a quick guide to some of the real people and locations I've used in Eleanor's Gamble.
