Theodore Winslow is in a bawdy
house for a very specific reason. He is
trying to negotiate with Sallie for the “rental” of a woman to play his
bride-to-be. He has very specific
qualifications in mind as well -- she has to be a redhead.
Sallie really wants to help the gentleman as she could really use the money
right now and he is offering enough so that she won’t have to worry for a while. But right now, Sallie doesn’t have any girls
that fit the bill. She finally decides to try
Molly Sweet, her cook although Molly has refused several times in the past to earn her
money “that way”.
Sallie goes to Molly in the kitchen and decides to
talk her into going along with it. When Theo
agrees not to do anything that Molly doesn’t want him to do, she finally agrees. Molly’s dream is to eventually buy an Inn and
she knows the money from this will help her achieve her goal. Sallie dresses Molly to look the part of a
strumpet, and also tells her not to talk like gentry, but to use a fake lowborn accent.
The whole point of this is that Theo’s father
has disinherited Terrance, Theo’s older brother.
Theo is hoping that if he brings him a low-born strumpet as his wife that
his father will disinherit him as well. Molly
is supposed to play the low-born strumpet and she will get her money when Theo is
disinherited. Theo thinks this should be
pretty easy. It turns out that he is
wrong.
So, off they go to Winslow Park, only to find that
the Squire is not home. The butler definitely
disapproves of Molly and shows it but rather than it bothering Molly, she is actually
having fun. For the first time in her life,
she can say whatever she wants to.
Theo keeps trying to make love with Molly and she
keeps putting him off, although they are both attracted to each other. Eventually the Squire shows up, and Molly figures
out that he is full of bluster. She now has
to keep playing a part that really isn’t her and she has to fight her attraction to
Theo. She’s afraid that he will figure
out that she really is innocent and not a strumpet.
She also has to try to get the Squire to disinherit Theo.
This story is full of wounded characters. Theo lost his mother as a young lad and his father
basically ignored him and his older brother after that.
Since nothing Theo did ever pleased his father, he emulated his older
brother, who is a rakehell and does whatever he wants.
Molly is an orphan and can’t believe the
problems with this family. All she has wanted
for most of her life is to belong to someone.
This is a wonderful Regency story. The plot is very funny and the story is filled
with humor as Molly plays her part. The
reader becomes caught up in the romance between Theo and Molly, as well as the dynamics of
the Winslow family. This is a very real story
of family love and how, sometimes, it takes an outsider to make the family realize just
what they have in each other. This is
definitely a story I recommend to all lovers of Regency Romance.
Reviewed by
Chere Gruver for The Road to Romance
May 22, 2003 |
