1949 Regency romance. Arabella Tallant is to go to London to make a
brilliant match, and thereby provide for the rest of her family (her
mother effectively left Society to marry a poor vicar). When the
chaise breaks down en route, she has to take shelter at a hunting-box;
and overhearing her host disparaging yet another young lady throwing
herself at his wealth, she reinvents herself as a great heiress who
has no interest in Mr Beaumaris at all.
There's a very substantial maturity of writing in this book, all
of a sudden. Arabella is a vicar's daughter brought up to speak out
about the wrongs she sees, and while climbing-boys and tormented dogs
have presumably always been present in the background of Heyer's
Regency world I think this is the first time they are mentioned. She
will not shut up and go along with the exploitation; she is determined
to do something about it, to the best of her ability.
At the same time, Arabella's fabulation about great wealth is spread
by Mr Beaumaris in a spirit of mischief; he, an exemplar of
fashionable society, decides for his own amusement to raise up this
country nobody to be the belle of the season. In the process of being
seen with her, and of bailing her out of situations such as the rescue
of the climbing-boy, he comes to care for her; but she has discovered
that the rumour of her wealth has spread, and so feels she can't
accept any proposal of marriage since it would be effectively
contingent on that non-existent money
This is all brought to a head by her scapegrace younger brother, who
comes to enjoy the amusements of Town and quickly finds himself in bad
company, and then in debt. In a poor plan conceived in desperation,
Arabella plans to agree to elope with Beaumaris, and then somehow to
ask him for the money…
There's plenty of historical detail, but there are also complex
characters and problems that can't be readily resolved. Really rather
fine.