Isabelle
Isabelle Wareham’s difficult relationship with her sister is exacerbated by the death of their father. The elder, Cornelia, already planning refurbishments to Bladings, the family manse, is incensed that the will leaves everything to Isabelle, who had looked after Colonel Wareham since his seizure. Isabelle is aggravated to find that her brother-in-law, Viscount Charles Dunsfold, is now her legal guardian. She decides, despite mourning, to host the annual Boxing Day hunt at Bladings as was her father’s tradition. And she is determined to hold the Twelfth Night shoot as well. Her cousin Julia accepts the proposal of Lord Slinfold, so one of the bachelors is out of the running. Lord Idsworth is wounded at the shoot, and Isabelle nurses him back to health. The tension is light. The ins and outs of aristocratic English high society are daunting. What is appropriate? What is not? Are men flirting with her, or just being gracious? Fortunately, Lady Taynton takes her under her wing. Local squire Edwin Semington seems sure Isabelle will marry him, a match favoured by Lord Dunsfold, but she is more attracted to the penniless Lord Idsworth. As Dunsfold and Semington plot to force her hand, Lady Taynton and Idsworth plot to rescue her. The similarity of names—Charles Slinfold/Charles Wareham; Slinfold/Dunsfold—is unfortunate, but there are not too many characters to keep track of.
This is a Regency romance ‘in the style of Georgette Heyer’. I don’t know Heyer, but there seemed to be a bit of Bridgerton and Upstairs, Downstairs (but mostly Upstairs) and, with the antics of young toffs Sir Charles Wareham, Lord Idsworth, Lord ‘Molly’ Mollerton and the indefatigable butler Mumby in their hunt for the rat and/or Lady Slinfold’s muff, a bit of P. G. Wodehouse. An easy read.
