When I re-read my Georgette Heyer historical novels, I tend to put off reading ‘The Toll Gate’. So I hadn’t read it since 2008. I was a bit reluctant to pick it up, as I didn’t remember it with particular fondness. But finally I decided I’d try it again… and have just finished it in two days.
Although I did remember a very violent and unpleasant scene towards the end of the book, and also the beginning - where a young man takes over running a toll gate, after its regular employee vanishes - I had entirely forgotten the story, and the details that make Heyer’s novels so very readable.
John Staples - known as Jack - is the main protagonist. He’s a lively, risk-taking man who has loved his time in the army on active service. He was a captain, and isn’t quite sure what he’s going to do now. His family want him to find a nice girl and settle down, but he finds most young women rather dull. He’s good looking in a low key way, and he’s tall - Heyer doesn’t specify how tall, exactly, but he’s evidently at least an inch or two more than six foot.
John departs from a dull family gathering, a kind of engagement party for his cousin. He plans to stay with an old friend, and sets out on his horse, sending his luggage on ahead. After a long ride, he comes to a toll and discovers it manned by a young boy. Ben is about twelve, but looks younger, and he’s clearly very scared about something. John senses an adventure, and he’s kind-hearted… he’s also very tired, and it’s another hour or more to the next town.
So he agrees to stay the night, expecting Ben’s father to return. But he doesn’t. And in the morning, while wondering what to do, he happens to meet Nell Stornaway, a confident, friendly and above all tall young woman. John is deeply attracted, and this is the main motivation for his agreeing to stay rather longer in the area.
There’s lots of gentle humour, much of it written in Heyer’s ironic style, as John starts cleaning the place, much to Ben’s astonishment. He learns a great deal about the duties of a toll-gate keeper, and he also gets to know several folk in the area. The book is all told from his point of view; Nell doesn’t come into it very much, as she’s with her elderly and probably dying grandfather. But the romantic thread runs along nicely, without the usual misunderstandings and jealousies that Heyer’s couples usually encounter.
But most of the plot is about a crime that took place a few weeks earlier, involving at least four of the characters in the book. As John tries to find out what happened to Ben’s father, he discovers more and more, and deliberately puts himself in danger more than once. But he’s a likeable person - Heyer’s gift of characterisation shines through, and although I’ve never met anyone quite like John, I liked him very much.
The scene at the end is as unpleasant as I had remembered, but it’s quite short, and certainly helps to tie up the story and most of the loose ends. It would have been good to come full circle and see Nell introduced to John’s family. But Heyer tends to end her novels abruptly, and this is no exception.
There are no balls and routs in this novel. While the main characters are from the upper middle classes, there are no ostentatious displays of wealth. Recommended if you like a bit more excitement and adventure than happens in most of Heyer’s romantic fiction.
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