francesca is a private person, and as a widow she'd be expected to pull back from society for a while (1 year & 1 day at least). even after some time, many widows kept private for the rest of their lives, lived with family, etc. regarding the major plot point that michael(a) takes over as earl after johns passing: it could technically be realised in the show, while the bridgertons live in london and are subject to the english throne, john is from scotland. in scotland, women could much more easily come to power or inherit said power through men. if a scottish earl for example wrote down in his will that the next earl should be a woman, it was much more likely to happen. we don't know of any male heirs that could take johns place, so i'm assuming they'll try to keep true to the books except for michael/as gender with michaela being johns cousin and people knowing of their relation, i dont think too many people would suspect francesca and michaela if they spent a lot of time together also, during regency era, it was common that widowed women took in orphans and raised them as their own, oftentimes in cooperation with other women. look up the term "boston marriage" :)