Series:
Bancrofts of Barton Park (Book 2)
The past is always hot on your heels…
Emma Bancroft used to pride herself on her sensible nature, but good
sense flew out the window during her first Season in London! Her
reputation and her belief in true love in tatters, she reluctantly
returns home to Barton Park.
David Marton is trying to live a quiet life -- until Emma comes sweeping
back. With whispers of scandal all about her, he knows she will never
be the right woman for him, but sometimes temptation is just too hard to
resist….
We first met Emma and David in The Runaway Countess, about Emma's sister Jane. This book takes place several years later. Emma eloped and lived to regret it, as her husband turned out to be a gambler and wastrel. After his death she has returned to Barton Park to put her life back together. David is a neighbor who has known Emma for a long time. He was attracted to her long ago, but considered her too frivolous and married someone else. That woman died while running away with a lover, leaving David with their five year old daughter. The attraction is still there between them, but neither one considers it a good idea.
I liked Emma very much. She admitted to the mistakes she made in the past and is determined to overcome them. She has a fair amount of pride and hates the idea of having to go to her sister for help. Rather than live in the main house, Emma has moved into one of the estate cottages. She is settling in there when she meets David again. She remembers him as a very stiff man, very proper and one who appeared to look down on her all those years ago. Her initial impression is that he hasn't changed at all. When she sees him again on several occasions she begins to think that he isn't as bad as he appears on the surface, especially when she sees him with his daughter. She really takes to the little girl, who reminds her a lot of herself, when she sees how much Beatrice likes to read. David asks Emma to give his daughter lessons while he searches for a governess. I loved seeing how Emma and Bea had so much fun together and how it helped Bea return to the happy little girl she had been before her mother's death. The lessons also put Emma and David in contact more often. Emma found that, when David relaxed his attitude, he could be a lot of fun and that they had more in common than she expected. She was also very attracted to him. As her feelings started to change and grow she faced the fact that because of her rather scandalous past she could never be the kind of woman David would want as a wife and mother for Bea. She was really down on herself about it. It only got worse when her husband's cousin showed up, trying to collect money owed to him. He was not a nice man at all and his presence just reminded her of what couldn't be. I loved the ending and seeing the way that David convinced her of his love.
David had always been on the serious side, except for a brief period in his youth. He had seen the problems that excessive emotion could cause and he wanted nothing to do with it. He took his sister's advice when he picked his wife and lived to regret it. Now he has brought his daughter home to the country as he starts to build a new life away from London. He worries about Bea, who has changed into a very quiet and withdrawn child. He knows he should eventually marry again and plans to choose his next wife very carefully. While he is drawn to Emma he considers her to be too much to make the kind of wife he needs. He is being "encouraged" by his sister to look at a friend of hers. He isn't really interested because his sister had been so off the last time, plus Bea doesn't like the woman at all. He can't believe how quickly Bea has gotten attached to Emma but can also see the positive changes in her. I loved his slow realization that being around Emma makes him happy in a way he had never known before. He also develops a protectiveness toward her that wants to save her from her problems. I loved his rescue of her from the ruins and his conversation later with Emma's brother-in-law. The scene at the assembly is great as he shows Emma just what she means to him.
One of the things I loved most about this book was the way it showcased a love of reading. Emma had always been a bookworm and I really enjoyed her visits to the local bookshop. It got even better when she decided she wanted to own it when the current owner retires. It also gave her a marvelous way to relate to Bea. It was fun to see them talk about books and the way that Emma encouraged Bea's interests.
Series:
Bancrofts of Barton Park (Book 1)
Wed to wickedness
In Society's eyes, Hayden Fitzwalter, Earl of Ramsay and Jane Bancroft
have the perfect marriage. But what can't be seen are the secrets hidden
behind closed doors. Believing Hayden will never renounce his dissolute
ways, Jane flees to her family's dilapidated estate in the country.
Years later, Hayden now longs to win back the only woman who has ever
touched his heart. But first he has to convince her that this rogue is
ready to be tamed….
Pretty good book. Hayden and Jane had married very young. Once they were in London they got caught up in London society and the problems started. After awhile they grew apart and Jane became more and more unhappy. Unable to get Hayden to listen to her concerns she packed up and moved to her childhood home. Three years later Jane has written to Hayden, offering him a divorce if he wants one, so that he can move on with his life. He realizes that all he wants is Jane back and decides to convince her.
Jane had fallen hard for Hayden when she first met him. He was young and handsome and fun. Even after they married everything was great, until they returned to London after their honeymoon. Then Jane realized that she was a countess and there were things that were expected of her, things she had no idea of how to do. She had grown up in the country and had no experience with this kind of lifestyle and she felt completely overwhelmed. And once they were back, Hayden was rarely with her, even when they attended things together. When she became pregnant and miscarried three times the gulf between them got even worse, with Jane feeling like a failure. Finally she told him that she needed to get away for awhile and returned to her childhood home. Three years later, having had no contact with him at all, she wrote to him offering a divorce so he could remarry and get an heir. She didn't expect him to show up at her home a few days later, to let her know there would be no divorce. She realizes that her attraction to him is still there and that she never stopped loving him. She also doesn't want to risk getting caught up in that life again. She doesn't trust that he won't disappear and go back to being the same old Hayden. But the longer he stays the more he becomes like the man she fell in love with. I realize that she has a great deal of trouble trusting him again, but I thought she spent a bit too much time remembering the way he had been and not enough time looking at the ways he had changed. I did like the fact that she had had the strength of will to get out of the bad situation to start with, but I thought she could have been a little more open to seeing the possibilities. I thought for sure she was going to fade back into the background when his friends showed up unexpectedly, and was thrilled when she finally showed the backbone she had developed over the last three years. It took a near disaster for her to realize that not all of the fault had been his.
Hayden had been drawn to Jane the first time he saw her. He was accustomed to getting pretty much anything he wanted and he pursued her as hard as he could. Being with her made him feel things he had never felt before. His parents had been quite cold to him, with his father having unrealistic expectations and his mother being a party animal. He had never been exposed to what a loving marriage was like. While it was just the two of them everything was fine, but when they returned to London he ended up caving in to peer pressure. He could see that things were going badly but he had no idea how to fix it. He was devastated when she left, but not knowing what to do he simply buried himself in activity. When he got Jane's letter he got angry that she would ask for a divorce and rode off to see her. After getting tossed from his horse in a storm and getting hurt, he had to stay with Jane until he was healed. This gave him the opportunity to try to convince her to come back to him. He realized immediately that she was much happier now that she had been before she left him. He was confused as to why since he had only wanted to make her happy before and had given her everything he thought she might like. It took a hard look at what she had in her life now for him to realize that she had never been interested in the things he could give her, that she had wanted him. Now he had to try to show her that he could change. He was doing very well until his friends showed up, and then he started to backslide. Fortunately he had begun to see what he was doing but it was almost too late. He did come through when Jane's sister needed him. My biggest problem with Hayden was how much time he spent beating himself up about how he had treated Jane. It seemed like every single chapter had some variant on that theme. I was glad they both realized they had been at fault and had matured enough to know that they had to work at it to make their marriage work.
