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The reason for this is that when I first read it - and as far as I know, my first reading was in 1986 - I found it very disturbing, and quite shocking. I noted, at the front of the book, ‘not a nice story’. And then I didn’t read it again until ten years later, when I commented underneath, ‘not so bad as I remembered’. I didn’t then read it again until 2009, where, in my review, I expressed that it was one of my least favourite of Heyer’s novels.
Sixteen years later, I thought it worth reading again. I did vaguely recall what happened at the end, but had entirely forgotten the main story. And I was a tad surprised at how much I liked the characters at the start. Kate is the main protagonist, and we meet her as she’s paying an unexpected visit to her old nurse Sarah Nidd.
Kate is not a wealthy debutante, like some of Heyer’s heroines, nor does she come from a large family. She’s not a strong and independent kind of character, either. She’s an orphan who grew up in military circles. She’s in her early twenties, and was left penniless when her father died. She managed to get a job as a governess, but her employer’s brother started making unwanted advances. So she’s lost her job, and is taking refuge.
Sarah adores Kate, and is happy to put her up, but her house is noisy, and somewhat chaotic, so she decides to write to Kate’s aunt, Minerva, half-sister of Kate’s late father. And Minerva responds by arriving, and sweeping Kate off for a stay in her large stately home. She overwhelms her with gifts, and says she is delighted to discover an unknown niece. Kate feels very grateful, but never really develops any rapport with Minerva.
Minerva has a nineteen-year-old son Torquil who is a somewhat disturbing character. He has been sickly all his life, and has rarely left his house. His father - twenty years older than his mother - is a delightful elderly man plagued with illness. Minerva gave up a lot to live in the country, rather than spending parts of the year in London socialising.
As with all Heyer’s novels, the pace is good and the characterisation is excellent. Minerva seems so generous, yet there’s a hard core to her. Her husband Sir James is gentle and affectionate, but prefers to avoid any kind of stress. And Torquil behaves like a spoilt child, with some very strange and disturbing episodes when he becomes - or talks of being - violent.
Then there’s Philip, Sir James’ nephew, who is evidently likeable, and concerned about his young cousin’s wellbeing. He and Kate clash initially but quickly become quite friendly; she finds him a bit confusing, and gets upset when she learns that although he loves his uncle, he can’t stand Minerva. This is partly because he recalls Sir James’ first wife, who died; but it’s clearly more than that.
Because I had remembered the unpleasant climax which occurs in the last few chapters, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book much at all. But I found Kate, Philip and Sarah delightful, well-rounded characters, and the story - as it turned out - is nowhere near as stressful or disturbing as I had feared. Yes, there are a few gory incidents, but no gratuitous description, and Kate herself is never really in any danger.
As with so many of Heyer’s novels it ends quite abruptly; loose ends are tied up and we know what is going to happen. So it makes sense to stop rather than state the obvious. I would have liked a brief epilogue telling us what the situation is a year later… but perhaps that’s supposed to be left to the imagination of the reader.
This isn’t the only Heyer novel that has unpleasant violence in it, and I’m not sure, now, why I found it so very disturbing when I first read it. It’s still not one of my favourites, but on the whole I thought it well-written and liked it more than I expected to.
Review copyright 2025 Sue's Book Reviews
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