Thomas Moreland has been in love with Felicity Pembroke Harrison for six long years... ever since the night that she discovered him after he'd been robbed and left for dead by a highwayman. Thomas isn't nobility like Felicity, but he'd been working and saving to go make his fortune in India. Without Felicity's kind nursing and attentions, not to mention her persuading her fiancee Capt. Harrison to find him a position on a ship bound for India, Thomas would have died.But now he's back - a rich nabob who made his fortune in India. And Thomas is determined to show Felicity how much he loves her - has loved her since their first meeting. Being a man, he does it his way: he hires Bow Street runners to learn everything about Felicity and her family. And so, after purchasing a large estate near Bath, Thomas approaches Felicity with a business proposition: Thomas will pay off her father's and brother's enormous gambling debts and settle a generous quarterly allowance on Felicity, her sister, and her brother IF Felicity will agree to sponsor his younger sister, Diana, into Bath society.Thomas never outright lies to Felicity; he just withholds the complete truth. I wasn't sure how to feel about this... these things always come back to bite us, don't they? And yet, throughout the book, Thomas proves himself over and over to be a true gentleman - an honorable and honest man.Felicity is still in widow's black, four years after her beloved Captain Michael Harrison was killed in the Peninsular Wars. What she doesn't know is that the very Captain Gordon who sticks to her like glue and is waiting for her to put away her black to marry him... this Captain Gordon is the very man responsible for her husband's death. He even shot himself in the leg to avoid having to go back to the war!Then, there's Thomas' lovely, gentile sister Diana, who's falling hopelessly in love with Felicity's brother, George the Viscount of Sedgewick. But can George stop his gaming, wining, and wenching to be worthy of her? Because George falls just as hard for Diana. And Thomas knows all...Add Felicity's sister Glee to the picture - Glee, who's in love with love and longs to be married... and Felicity's "friend" Mrs. Carlotta Ennis (another war widow), who seems to be more than attracted to the handsome, honorable, wealthy Mr. Thomas Moreland... and what you've got is quite the set-up for a rollicking good Regency romance. Throw in an elopement, a kidnapping, lots of gossip and backbiting, misunderstandings galore, and voila! You've got a fun, romantic good read!
