Frances Allard, a music teacher at Miss Martin’s School for Girls (yes, that former governess and that school that Freyja Bedwyn anonymously sponsors), is returning from a Christmas visit with her great-aunts. It begins to snow. Even though she’s been yearning for it all through her holiday, it’s not a welcome sight.
Lucius Marshall, Viscount Sinclair, is returning from a Christmas at the family estate in Somersetshire and is in a most foul mood, even before an ancient, plodding boat of a carriage hogs the road. His beloved grandfather, the Earl of Edgecombe, is dying. More worse, the man extracted his promise that he would marry this season. Worst still is the woman that his family is promoting as his bride: Miss Portia Hunt, the daughter of Baron and Lady Balderston and the granddaughter of the Marquess of Godsworthy, is perfect candidate. “There was no one more beautiful, more elegant, more refined, more accomplished, than Portia.” The thought of marrying her is not just a leg shackle but a noose tightening on his neck.
The pair meet when Lucius’s carriage blocks the road and causes Frances’s carriage to slide off into a snow drift. The increasing snow storm forces them to not only ride together, but stop at an inn whose only occupant is a lazy servant. But stop they must. They are snow bound for several days, during which time their initial enmity thaws and affection grows. Attraction grows and in typical romance style, the doomed-to-be-single female decides to indulge in one night of passion which she can live off of for the rest of her life.
Lucius ruins this pleasant interlude by suggesting, then urging and finally demanding that she travel on to London with him. They end up quarreling when she continues to refuse — he’s crazy if he thinks she’s going to leave a fulfilling stable job to become a kept woman — and part on less-than-friendly terms. They’re thrown back together 3 months later when Lucius hears the voice of an angel at an assembly in Bath and discovers that the angel is Frances. This time, he’s not going to take no for an answer.
Actually, he ends up hearing ‘no’ at least five more times, but for reasons he doesn’t quite know, he refuses that to be the end of their story. Frances turns him down for a very good reason, one I won’t reveal here, but it is something that legitimately disqualifies her from being excepted by the ton. Of course, the upper echelon‘s of the beau monde aren’t quite as at the ton’s mercy as the average gentry are, and in the end, when the truth is revealed, Lucius wants to throttle her for being ridiculously stubborn in refusing him and love wins the day.
This series occurs tangentially to the Bedwyn saga (which I loved). I’m hoping that at least Freyja will make an appearance at some point in the series. This book was a welcome change from some of my more recent readings, as I ended it with a goofy smile on my face. Simply Unforgettable’s hero, while on the side of arrogant, is a true gentleman, both in manners and dress, and all things that make an HR hero swoon worthy. Frances is all that makes the heroine great: she’s elegant, down-to-earth, not snobby nor is she striving to land a titled gentleman, and is able to stand on her own 2 feet rather than waiting for a man to catch her when she faints. She doesn’t need a man to rescue her from her life. She’s able to do it herself and is quite content with her life.
This story focuses less on the unequal plight of women during this period. I think, in part, because she has the means to be independent. She’s not being forced into a marriage not of her choosing. She’s not even thinking about getting married. She doesn’t have undue pressure from the men in her family or society at large. It’s a refreshing change.
This is an excellent start to this new series. There’s no ridiculous drama. Nothing truly outlandish keeps the couple apart. It’s relatively free from some of the more ridiculous tropes that appear in historical romances. Frances and Lucius are a couple that I will remember fondly and so I give it
5/5 stars.
5/5 stars.
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