How To Capture A Duke
How to Capture a Duke by Bianca Blythe
This regency novel has all the traditional characteristics with a highwayman robbery, a kidnapping, and an arranged marriage only it’s not the beautiful young girl who endures all the adventures but the hero, Percival Carmichael, who has become a duke after his cousin saves his life and loses his own on the battlefield at Waterloo. Percival has agreed to marry his cousin’s betrothed, the beautiful Lady Cordelia sight unseen and has gone home to retrieve the family jewels and engagement ring. On his trip back to London he encounters the Scarlet Demon.
Fiona Amberly lost her parents in a tragic carriage accident at Christmas times and now dreads the holidays. She spent only two months in her first season but her red hair and lack of dance partners forced her home and the life of a spinster. Her dear grandmother is ill and to ease her worry, she invented Captain Knightly who was away fighting in the war. Unfortunately, Napoleon has been defeated and she needs someone to pretend to be her imaginary Knightly.
Fiona loves archeology even before it becomes a science. She goes out in the evening to visit her dig and sees a tree fallen in the road. Remembering her parents’ death, she stops a coach before it encounters the obstacle. The driver thinks she is a highwaywoman and Percival thinks she wants to steal the jewels he has retrieved. Fiona thinks Percival, even with a wooden leg, is the perfect man and wants him to pose as her fiance so her grandmother won’t worry about her future.
It seems like a simple plan, but Fiona makes a complete mess of everything as the driver rides off on her horse. She threatens Percival with her knife and makes him drive the coach to a tavern where he escapes but she enlists the men to track him down in a sleigh because he is her “husband” and has abandoned her and the children. Nobody believes Percival when he tells them he’s been kidnapped. Fiona tells one lie after another and they end up sharing the best room at the Tavern as man and wife.
She finally tells him the truth and they are attracted to each other but Percival’s brother comes to rescue him in response to a letter he sent and everything goes wrong, including Fiona being arrested as the highwaywoman.
Blythe takes an innocent ant hill problem of Fiona finding someone to pose as her betrothed and turns it into a mountain of misunderstandings. When you think one problem is solved another pops up. Happiness is followed by sorrow, and Blythe knows how to wring out emotions for her characters. The reader will keep turning the pages hoping the happily ever after comes sooner than later.
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