Eighteen-year-old Constance is not interested in marriage or in being a āyoung lady.ā But for a young woman coming of age in the early 1800s, thatās just about all thatās available to her. When her parents arrange her a marriage with a man
more than twice her age, sheās powerless to resist. Stance couldnāt possibly find her newfound husband less appealing, but what can she do?Hereās what:
Four months into the marriage, she can slip out of their bed in the middle of the night, and she can put on his clothes. She can look in the mirror and like what she sees. She can sneak out of the house before dawn and visit the bakerās scrawny
son, who has just been drafted into the army, and offer to take his place. Vive lāEmpereur!
Hot on Stanceās tail all the while is her younger brother Pieter, determined to bring Stance back home to Ghent where she belongs. (The battlefield is no place for a young lady, after all.)
Ironhead, or, Once A Young Lady is the riotous and powerful story of a fierce renegade, and the silly men who try to bring her down.