Deborah Grantham is a poor relation living with her aunt, Lady Bellingham. This older lady offers much of the amusement of this book because Lady Bellingham has absolutely no common or financial sense. Georgette Heyer has a gay-old-time with the misfortunes of Lady Bellingham. Deborah has taken up a job at Lady Bellingham's gaming house. This is not a large gaming house but one for select friends and acquaintances. Because of the family's rank, this is not a gaming hell but a gaming house of barely-there respectability.
Now the house is not respectable enough for one of the lordly patrons to consider marrying Deborah. When young Lord Mablethorpe attends the Bellingham estate and falls in love with Deborah, Lord Mablethorpe's mother goes into a tizzy. She sends Max Ravenscar, Mablethorpe's cousin, to break the couple apart. Max, horrified when he finds that Deb is 25-years-of-age, to Mablethorpe's tender years (he's 2 months short of reaching his majority), tries to buy Deb off.
If Max had simply asked Deb her intentions, she would have told him that she had no interest in marrying such a young man. Instead, Max insults Deb and she tells him that she would marry Mablethorpe whenever she wished. When she realizes that Max thinks she is out for Mablethorpe's money, she becomes enraged and plots to show him what's what.
Both Lady Bellingham and Mablethorpe's mother are both idiots and Georgette Heyer has a gay time providing them with ample opportunity to have the vapors. Max and Deb are both proud people who underestimate the character of each other.
This is such an engaging book that I read it in a couple of days. The only thing I thought it lacked was a bit of backstory for Max Ravenscar. Why did he assume that Deb was out for the young Mablethorpe's money? Otherwise, the story is a great deal of fun.
Now the house is not respectable enough for one of the lordly patrons to consider marrying Deborah. When young Lord Mablethorpe attends the Bellingham estate and falls in love with Deborah, Lord Mablethorpe's mother goes into a tizzy. She sends Max Ravenscar, Mablethorpe's cousin, to break the couple apart. Max, horrified when he finds that Deb is 25-years-of-age, to Mablethorpe's tender years (he's 2 months short of reaching his majority), tries to buy Deb off.
If Max had simply asked Deb her intentions, she would have told him that she had no interest in marrying such a young man. Instead, Max insults Deb and she tells him that she would marry Mablethorpe whenever she wished. When she realizes that Max thinks she is out for Mablethorpe's money, she becomes enraged and plots to show him what's what.
Both Lady Bellingham and Mablethorpe's mother are both idiots and Georgette Heyer has a gay time providing them with ample opportunity to have the vapors. Max and Deb are both proud people who underestimate the character of each other.
This is such an engaging book that I read it in a couple of days. The only thing I thought it lacked was a bit of backstory for Max Ravenscar. Why did he assume that Deb was out for the young Mablethorpe's money? Otherwise, the story is a great deal of fun.
