Set in 1811, mostly in Kent, this is the story of Lady Tess
Mandeville. Tess looks like her ill-fated great grandmother, who also had red
hair and violet eyes and who was abducted, raped and impregnated by Baron
Mandeville, and forced to marry the evil man instead of the Earl of Sherbourne whom
she loved. Now there is another Baron Mandeville, Avery, a distant cousin of
the one who recently died. Thinking to have her fortune, Avery imprisons Tess
in his house and demands she wed him.
With the aid of her aunts, Tess
escapes, only to fall into the hands of smugglers looking for a horse. They
take her horse and her jewels and hit her on the head, whereupon she loses her
memory. In a nearby traveler’s inn, she meets the handsome Nicolas Talmage,
Earl of Sherbourne, who assumes she is a tavern wench available for his use. He
plies her with liquor and takes her innocence. When he tells Tess she will
become his mistress, she refuses, but Nicolas ignores her. He takes her to an
old cottage on the outskirts of his estate where he basically holds her
prisoner as his mistress and “no thought of resisting him crossed her mind.”
Apparently neither was concerned she might birth a bastard.
I love Busbee’s storytelling, which
captured me immediately with Tess’ strange family history, and the inclusion of
smugglers operating on the coast of Kent. The mystery of what happened to Tess’
great grandmother persists till the end. The plot thickens when the smugglers
return and threaten Tess. Meanwhile, her uncles, who guard her fortune, are on
the hunt for her. I loved Busbee’s portrayal of the uncles and their dry
speech. And all her Regency expressions add richness to the story.
However, the instant lust between both
the hero and heroine was a bit jarring, especially with her being an innocent
and never having met him before. To my thinking, she also gave in to him too
easily. It was interesting to me that neither Nicolas nor anyone else noticed
Tess’ aristocratic speech, unlikely for a tavern whore. That aside, it was a
great story and the mystery of her grandmother is solved in the end.
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