Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn discussion
Monday Puzzler
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September 21,2020
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Is she even sane? Women in the 1800's had few opportunities for a decent life if their only Brother and both parents had died. She needs to get busy and secure her future, not indulge in fruitless wishing/hoping/fairy tales.
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The Matrimonial advertisement by Mimi Mathews
Susan wrote: "Is she even sane? Women in the 1800's had few opportunities for a decent life if their only Brother and both parents had died. She needs to get busy and secure her future, not indulge in fruitless ..."In those days not much one could do but seek protection through marriage.
Sorry for the delay in the response I received a severe rope burn to my ankle when my dog surged at a critter under the grill. Zippppp ouch. Author synopsis
Helena Reynolds will do anything to escape her life in London, even if that means traveling to a remote cliffside estate on the North Devon coast and marrying a complete stranger. But Greyfriar's Abbey isn't the sort of refuge she imagined. And ex-army captain Justin Thornhill - though he may be tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome - is anything but a romantic hero.
He needed redemption...
Justin has spent the last two decades making his fortune, settling scores, and suffering a prolonged period of torture in an Indian prison. Now, he needs someone to smooth the way for him with the villagers. Someone to manage his household - and warm his bed on occasion. What he needs, in short, is a wife and a matrimonial advertisement seems the perfect way to acquire one. Their marriage was meant to be a business arrangement and nothing more. A dispassionate union free from the entanglements of love and affection. But when Helena's past threatens, will Justin's burgeoning feelings for his new bride compel him to come to her rescue? Or will dark secrets of his own force him to let her go?
Susan wrote: "Sorry for the delay in the response I received a severe rope burn to my ankle when my dog surged at a critter under the grill. Zippppp ouch. I hope you get well soon. (Winces in sympathy). The book sounds good, I'll check it out now. Have a nice weekend.
Susan wrote: "Sorry for the delay in the response I received a severe rope burn to my ankle when my dog surged at a critter under the grill. Zippppp ouch. Author synopsis
Helena Reynolds will do anything to es..."
Hope you feel better soon, Susan.
This one looks interesting, I'm definitely adding it to the pile. :-)
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Also my face is red as I read this not too long ago. And didn’t remember it at all.
Mod
slowly I think I bruised my ankle bone and it really hurts and makes my foot swell up. Then I start passing a kidney stone. What a day. But this will all pass quickly with a good book in hand,, my sewing, my art and learning Italian. Busy brain keeps me from wallowing in self-pity.
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It mattered little in the end. I soon went into mourning---first for him and then for BROTHER. Courtship and marriage was the last thing on my mind. AS for falling in love…I haver not experience at all.” She grew serious. “But I know what it is to love a person. It’s what I felt for my mother and brother.
He turned his face into her hair. Her coiffure was an intricate arrangement of rolls and plaits, secured at the back with a filigree comb. It smelled of jasmine, sweet and faintly exotic. “Describe it to me,” he said.
“It’s a special bond. A kinship of shared memories and experience. But it’s more than that. Oh, I can’t explain it.” She struggled for the right words. “It’s…it’s when you see a person and your spirits lift. When their happiness means more to you than your own. When you’d do anything for them sacrifice anything, even if the sacrifice what would hurt you or make you unhappy.”
Hero thought of the hell Heroine had been put through in the year since her brother disappeared in India. “If they loved you in return, they wouldn’t ask for such a sacrifice.”
“They wouldn’t have to ask,” she said. “You’d give it regardless.”
As she had done. AS she was still doing. “Do you think your brother would be happy to know what you’ve endured on his behalf?”
His question seemed to take her aback. When she answered it, her voice was threaded with emotion. “I think he would be sad. He willed me that money to secure my future. He wanted to make certain I’d always be taken care of. That I’d always be safe.”
Hero didn’t know anything about brother or her late Father. He might well have been a good and decent brother. Nevertheless, Hero felt and overpowering anger toward the man. “If he wanted you to be safe, he shouldn’t have abandoned you. A man who’s just inherited and earldom has no cause to continue soldiering. He could have come home, looked after you.”
Heroine raised her head from his chest. Her eyes found his in the light of the carriage lamp. “You don’t understand. He was going to come home when the rebellion was suppressed. He simply wasn’t ready yet. Brother couldn’t bear life in England. Not after my mother died. He was restless. He needed a purpose. Something active that would keep him from brooding.”
“And what about what you needed?”
“Me?”
“He left you to shoulder the burden. And then he went and got himself killed. A course of action any soldier should have known was a distinct possibility.”
Heroine stared at him. Her mouth trembled. “He’s not dead, Hero.”
Oh hell. Hero’s heart sank as he looked at her face. He couldn’t have chosen a worse thing to say if he’d tried.
Her fingers tightened on the lapel of his evening coat. “Do you think he is?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice gone gruff. ” Probably.”
Her face crumpled. “I can’t ---” She stopped and looked away from him in a visible effort to regain her composure. “I can’t accept it. I have to believe he’s coming back.”
Hero wouldn’t let her hide from him. He drew her close again, urging her to meet his eyes. “Why, sweetheart?” He scarcely registered the endearment he uttered, only vaguely aware that it was one he’d never used with any woman before.
“Because he’s all I have,” she said. “All that’s left of my family.”
Hero held her gaze. “he’s not all you have. “
She bent her head, resting her cheek back against his chest. “I know that. I do. And I’m trying not to be unreasonable. But if there’s a chance, Hero. Even a small chance, that brother is out there somewhere…”