““If only others knew that Lady Calpurnia Hartwell, proper, well-behaved spinster, entertained deep-seated and certainly unladylike thoughts about fictional heroes. She sighed again with self-deprecation. She was well aware of how silly she was, dreaming of the heroes in her books. It was a terrible habit, and one she had harbored for far too long. It had begun when she had first read Romeo and Juliet at age twelve and followed her through heroes great and small- from Beowulf and Hamlet and Tristan to the dark, brooding heroes of gothic novels. It didn't matter the quality of the writing- Callie's fantasies about her fictional heroes were entirely democratic.””
