Madeline de Lacy, the duchess of Magnus, nearly chokes on her beef stew when
her father, Magnus, calmly tells her that he wagered her in a game of chance and lost.
Magnus has also lost his entire estate in the wager. Magnus reasons that that it will all
work out because by marrying his game opponent, Madeline will retain control over the
accounts and estates, so all is not lost.
Madeline
has no intention of marrying anyone, nor is she willing to accept the fact that her father
has, once again, lost everything, so she devises a scheme. Madeline’s cousin, and
companion, Miss Eleanor de Lacy, trade places to try to convince Mr. Remington Knight not
to go through with the wager.
Will
Mr. Knight find out about the charade? What will happen when Madeline runs into Gabriel
Ansell, the earl of Campion? Several years previously, Gabriel and Madeline were engaged.
Since Madeline has been away from London for four years, she pretty much put Gabriel out
of her mind. Now that she has returned, however, the pain of his betrayal cuts deeper and
deeper.
Who is
the mysterious Mr. Rumblelow? What does he have to do with the whole situation? There is a
high stake game about to take place, and Gabriel is one of the players. As part of her
scheme, Madeline is acting as a ladies’ maid to Lady Thomasin Charlford, and is, in
effect, a guest at the estate where the party will be held. Now that Gabriel and Madeline
are forced together in this scheme, much to Madeline’s surprise, will their
attraction flare again?
What a
bevy of characters we have in SCANDALOUS AGAIN! Starting with Madeline, who is notorious
for her schemes, she keeps us quite entertained. No one wants to get in Madeline’s
way once she comes up with an idea. It was rather humorous to see people make way for her,
even when they knew something odd was up. There is also Lady Thomasin. At first she seems
timid and uninvolved. With Madeline’s help, she blossomed rather quickly, and I truly
enjoyed her innate sense of humor. Lastly, in the interest of space and time, I’ll
mention Gabriel. Never was there a more confident man. He was lost for four years without
Madeline, as she disappeared from England without a trace. But now that he has her, he
will indeed have her, even if he has to remind her that her own body betrays when she
tries to insist she is no longer interested.
Don’t
miss SCANDALOUS AGAIN with its intrigue, deceit, humor and passion. Despite the many
activities during the game and the party, watching Gabriel and Madeline fight their
feelings for each other was touching and intense. I am intensely curious to see if the
story will pick up with Eleanor. I’ll keep Ms. Dodd in my “to be bought”
list, as that is a story I’d not want to miss.
Reviewed
by Robin Taylor for The Road to Romance
August
5, 2003 |
