I actually wasn't very sure of this one, given it was originally published in 1982, at the height of the bodice-rippers, so I was beyond pleasantly surprised to find it it was anything but salacious.

The three Hartingtons - Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne (dubbed Euphie) - were named after Homer's Three Graces. They have endured a lot in their young lives, including the deaths of their parents and a traumatic move from their beloved Hampshire home to reside with their Aunt Elvira, their father's sister. Elvira keeps the sisters cloistered in her home with her multitude of cats, much to youngest sister Euphie's chagrin, though Aggie and Thalia are less concerned with the doings of high society. The girls were allowed educations in whatever interested them, which included literature for Thalia and music for Euphie. This is enough for the eldest sisters, but Euphie desperately wishes for more.

Well, her wish comes true, when the girls discover their aunt dead the very afternoon that the story opens. She's died of old age, and suddenly the girls are left alone in the world. Worst yet is the reading of their aunt's will - she's left her entire fortune to her cats!

The girls are forced out into the world to earn their livings, and for the first time in their lives, they are separated. Aggie is headed back to Hampshire to take a post as a nursery governess; Thalia received an appointment at the prestigious girls school Chadbourne, in Bath, as the new mistress of literature; Euphie is reluctantly hired out as a companion to a wizened old lady in London. Each girl takes with them a kitten from their aunt's house, and the cats play rather delightful roles in the story.

From this beginning, we follow each of the girls on their paths. First up is Aggie, in Hampshire. She was hired by Anne Wellfleet as a governness for her young children. Anne is a similarly young, stylish woman, and immediately wants to make Aggie her best friend. Anne is secure in her marriage, and yet has many childlike qualities, which at turns make Aggie comfortable and uncomfortable. The children are complete delights, and slowly Aggie settles into life as a governness.

She also runs into her old foe John Dudley, who used to make fun of her by calling her Uglea. She is hardly ugly these days - with her russet-colored hair cut fashionably at Anne's insistence, and her deep blue eyes, set off by castoff fashions (also from Anne) - and John Dudley immediately falls for her, and she for him.

After much angst, Aggie allows Anne to throw a party in her honor (for Anne is very interested in marrying Aggie off - this is obviously not the usual employer/employee relationship!), and just when John is about to make his move, Aggie receives an incredible letter from her aunt's solicitor: there has been a mistake; Elvira did provide for her nieces after all!

Aggie is immediately away to collect her sisters; John Dudley is stunned by the news, and refuses to see her before she leaves.

Next we catch up with Thalia, who has taken a teaching job in Bath. The Chadbourne School is known as a prestigious girls' academy, catering to the rich and powerful of society. Thalia is targeted not only because she is new, but because she is young and beautiful - scarcely older than her students. One particularly nasty girl, Lady Agnes Crewe, forms a grudge against Thalia from the start, and sets out to make her life hell. On the contrary, Thalia takes a shine to a shy student named Mary Deming, who shares her love of literature and poetry.

Thalia wanders off campus during her days off, and stumbles upon a handsome young man reciting ancient Greek in the woods. He turns out to be James Elguard, a younger son bound for the church, on break from Oxford and visiting his mother in Bath. Thalia and James immediately hit it off and begin an unconventional friendship, which is quite against the rules of the school. Lady Agnes spies them one afternoon and begins to spread malicious gossip about Thalia - not only to the students, but also to the headmistress and James's mother, who comes to the school and confronts Thalia as a common whore, more or less.

James doesn't help the situation at all when he storms into the school and demands to see Thalia, in front of a tittering pocket of students, including Agnes. He declares his love for her and asks her to marry him, but she refuses, angry and upset that he's made her post at Chadbourne completely unbearable.

Just when things look the worst, she receives word from Aggie about their newly changed fortunes. She can't get away from Bath fast enough.

Finally, we follow Euphie down to London, where she takes her place as a hired companion to an old lady in society, the countess Fanshawe. Euphie isn't certain what to make of her, but she absolutely falls in love with Lady Fanshawe's opulent house, and finds the old woman quite agreeable. Lady Fanshawe is old and alone and doesn't give two hoots about appearances anymore. She is quite fiesty, and she enjoys Euphie for the very reason she hated the other companions forced onto her. Euphie doesn't simper or tiptoe around her; she gives as good as she gets, and this delights her employer.

Lady Fanshawe, like Anne Wellfleet, sets out to give Euphie a fashionable makeover, and when she sees the way her erstwhile son, the new earl Giles, responds to her fresh young companion, she hatches a plan to marry them off in spite of their age difference (Euphie is seventeen; Giles thirty). Lady Fanshawe takes Euphie to a party, where she meets Agnes Crewe and Mary Deming, and spies Giles paying much more attention to a married duchess than is perhaps proper. She enjoys herself quite a bit, and longs for her sisters - and receives a missive about her change in fortune and the imminent arrival of both girls.

Euphie invites her sisters to stay with her at Lady Fanshawe's for the Season. Lady Fanshawe is delighted to have three girls under her roof, and insists on giving them a debutante ball to introduce them into Society.

It of course goes off smashingly. Lady Elguard has heard of Thalia's wealth and falls all over herself trying to make amends. She calls her son James into town and encourages his suit. Aggie is overwhelmed by the festivities, and she's still hurt by John's stinging rebuke, but Thalia and Anne Wellfleet conspire to bring him into London so they can be reconciled. Euphie is living it up - a Season is her dream come true - even though she struggles with Giles's hot-and-cold feelings towards her.

Everything ties up quite simply, with each girl landing her dreamboat (and Lady Agnes getting delicious comeuppance at the hands of Thalia and James). This is a very frothy, uncomplicated book, and a true Regency romance - nobody kisses until they are engaged, and even then the descriptions are very opaque.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. I liked each of the Harrington sisters and adored Lady Fanshawe =) It was fun to see Agnes get hers, after she was so cruel to so many people. And I like Euphie the best, because her musical talent takes center stage in her storyline. Her scene with Giles is the last, and it's beautifully rendered in the music room in Lady Fanshawe's house, one of my favorite tropes ♥ ( )