The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane

Tansy Tamerlane hit Kasey like a ton of bricks one day, refusing to be anyone but who she was, refusing any name that ended with A, or even C. That’s the thing about Tansy. She’s tenacious (which is just a short hop to “stubborn,” but nobody ever got anywhere by being a shy, shrinking violet, now did they?).
Tansy, left penniless by her late father, has been putting herself out as a governess to other people’s brats for two years when she is somehow caught up in playing chaperone to a distant cousin, the sister of a duke, no less. Ashley Benedict, Duke of Avonall, is a man beleaguered. His grandmother is a terror, his sister a lovely but none-too-bright chit, his valet a superstitious twit, and his aunt Lucinda is … well, different. Singular. Okay, so she’s downright odd.
Lucinda Benedict, you see, speaks only in quotes. Other people’s words. Really. And if you think an author can’t have a lot of fun with a character like that, well, you haven’t yet met Aunt Lucinda! In fact, Kasey was so taken with her that Aunt Lucinda went on to appear in The Playful Lady Penelope, and (as a ghost, no less!) in The Haunted Miss Hampshire.
First published April 1, 1982