2024 Victorian romance, fourth and last in the loose Belles of
London series. Stella Hobhouse knows that marriage, any marriage, is
her only escape from life as a drudge to her hateful brother. But she
did not entirely think through her scandalous plan to colour her
prematurely silver hair…
And her destined partner is Edward "Teddy" Hayes, the brother of
the heroine from A Convenient Fiction in Matthews' earlier Parish
Orphans of Devon series, with legs paralysed by scarlet fever. The
treatment is sensitive, probably not accurate to the times, but then
the historical romance is already a kind of fantasy so I'll give it a
pass. (An anachronistic mention of a lighter wheeled chair with brakes
and pneumatic tyres is backed up by genuine earlier developments which
would have made it possible at this date, had anyone known about
them and put the work into it.)
Since his illness and the acceptance that he's not going to be able to
walk again, Teddy has assumed he won't marry. He has concentrated on
his painting, studying under Gleyve in Paris and being rejected by all
the stuffy galleries; indeed, he's a proto-Impressionist. When he sees
Stella, he knows he must paint her (and she quite properly refuses).
But as they return to each others' company, their feelings grow.
So we have a woman who's been told she's ugly and useless, and a man
who to some extent has been told the same, though that side of things
is downplayed. There are no Big Misunderstandings or dramatic fights;
there's not even a huge amount of opposition to the match. (I did
expect a coda with Hateful Brother, but he simply fades out of the
story.) There is some very good consideration of Teddy's family and
friends, who in their simple assumption that it would be impossibly
dangerous for him to try to live with only a servant in attendance can
be just as hurtful, though in a different way, as any more
straightforward opposition to his existence.
It's all rather pleasing, and I continue to like Matthews' writing
though her lack of may/might distinction still irks me. In this and
the previous series, she's effectively managed to avoid falling into
ruts.