'A romantic page-turner from a master story-teller'. - Robert Foster, best-selling author of The Lunar Code.
This novel was first published in the USA in 1981, its British debut by Severn House in 1988.
It was later published by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, as a paperback in the US and Canada.
“I promise you, she’s the most delightful creature, with a quirky sense of humour very like your own. As for the other qualities you mention – birth, breeding, experience of managing a household of consequence – she has them all, with amiability and common sense besides!”
So Henrietta Melville is described to the Honourable Julian Aldwyn, who is on the look-out for a conformable wife who would prove restful after an earlier, disastrous love-affair in his life.
But there’s much more to Miss Melville than meets the eye. Although she is a spirited and intelligent heiress, at twenty-six and still unmarried, she’s considered to be on the shelf. Certainly Julian Aldwyn does not anticipate a refusal of his offer of marriage.
But refused he is, and then comes a whirlwind month in Bath, a dastardly rakehell, secrets from the past... all calculated to turn any woman’s head. What will Miss Melville do?
Comments from users on Amazon
“This is a terrific traditional regency novel. It is well written, with a well planned and well executed plot. This is not a bodice ripper, in fact the romance is very subtle and instead the plot focuses on the female character's happy adjustment to living in Bath after a youth spent caring for younger siblings. Just prior to leaving for her new life in Bath, she is offered a marriage of convenience from someone that she is extremely attracted to, but she decines because she is looking for more than a marriage of convenience. She moves to Bath, joining a young, widowed childhood friend and then .....well, you will have to read the book to enjoy this thoroughly entertaining novel.”
