first season two years later produced no such offers. As she remained single over the next several years, her family increasingly expected that she would marry her cousin John, Viscount Duncannon. Harriet herself had held this expectation since a young age, though she was unsure whether she cared for him enough to marry. But after three years of indecisiveness, Duncannon married another woman. Her family also unsuccessfully encouraged a match with another cousin, John, Viscount Althorp. The Duchess's sudden death in 1806 contributed to profound changes in her younger daughter's life. Elizabeth Foster, the Duke's longtime mistress, took control of the Devonshire household and thus usurped this role from his unmarried daughter. Harriet, who had long disliked Elizabeth, avoided her as much as possible. While social norms dictated Harriet could not permanently move out, she was able to frequently stay with other family members, including with her sister at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire. Harriet's son Frederick later wrote that the experience "strengthened the tie of sisterly affection, which bound them together during the whole of their joint lives". From 1801 onwards, Harriet wrote to her sister almost daily until the latter's death in 1858, corresponding in English and French. Marriage The Duchess's sister, Henrietta, Countess of Bessborough, felt obligated to help her niece escape a difficult home situation. Harriet had previously been critical of her aunt, but with her mother gone, now turned to her for affection and support. When the Duke announced his desire to marry his mistress, Henrietta began searching for a suitable marriage prospect for her niece. The chosen candidate was Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, a politician and diplomat who had been her lover for seventeen years and the father of her two illegitimate children. Though still infatuated with him, she knew that Granville would need to eventually marry and produce legitimate offspring, and that when he did so, she would likely lose him. Convincing her niece to marry him was one way of keeping him within her social circle. Though Granville had represented several constituencies in the House of Commons and served briefly in the cabinet of the Second Portland ministry, his career was primarily in diplomacy. He had been stationed in various European courts since 1796, and by 1809 had become a mid-career diplomat. Known to Harriet since her childhood, he was twelve years her senior. She had never particularly cared for him, having disapproved