Another amusing and charming tale from Christina Dudley, the first in a new series following the impoverished Barstow family, their elderly and kindly benefactor and the various characters whose paths cross with them.
Here’s the premise: the Barstow family has, through the death of the father and son, fallen on hard times. Eldest daughter Adela, in desperation, contacts a distant relation, Lord Dere, who offers them a cottage on his estate, but as they prepare to move, second daughter Jane elopes with a roguish man who they fear might not even marry her. As they squeeze themselves into Iffley Cottage, three adults and four children, not to mention a dog and a newly acquired kitten, they agree that nothing must be mentioned of Jane’s predicament, only that she is married, lest Lord Dere think better of his offer to such a disreputable family. But it turns out it’s not Lord Dere who must be appeased at all costs, but his niece by marriage, the widowed Mrs Markham Dere, who has insinuated herself and her son, now heir to the barony, into the baron’s seat, Perryfield, and there rules all before her, including the rather timid baron.
Into this awkward situation comes Mr Gerard Weatherill, the newly recruited tutor for Master Peter Dere, even more impoverished than the Barstows, and with secrets of his own to keep hidden, lest he lose his position. And it doesn’t help that the tutor and the practical eldest daughter have the hots for each other right from the start. Nothing can come of a match between two people who haven’t a bean between them, and besides, Adela has a cunning plan to ensure that they aren’t turfed out when all those messy secrets emerge, as they inevitably will. She’s going to marry the elderly but kindly baron, and keep Mrs Markham Dere in her place for ever.
Of course, this works about as well as you might expect, at least until Adela hears what has actually happened to Jane and her new (but feckless) husband, and grows so desperate that she throws caution to the wind.
There’s so much to love about this book, but especially the characters. The Barstows are a wonderful collection, from baby Sebastian (or Bash) to bouncy young son Gordy to 15-year-old Frances who actually manages to inveigle her way into Mrs Markham Dere’s good books in support of Adela’s hopes. I assume that most of the family will get their own book in time. But there’s also Mrs Markham Dere herself, a gloriously not quite over the top character, and the absolutely lovely baron, who surely deserves his happy ever after at least as much of some of the others.
So why only four stars? A couple of things niggled at me. One is the number of times Adela contrived to trip or fall over or otherwise end up entangled with one or other of the two men, the one she’d fallen in love with and the one she’d grimly decided to marry for her family’s sake. A certain amount of that is fine, and mostly it was very funny, but after a while it did get a bit old, and I’d have liked some variation.
The other issue I had was Adela, who has basically entrapped the baron into a betrothal, and then hangs onto him for grim death, even though their marriage would make a lot of people very unhappy. I really, really wanted her to come to her senses, confess all to the baron and throw herself on his mercy, but she never did, right to the (not very bitter) end, when the happy ending is magicked into being with a wave of a well-manicured hand. It was all a bit deus ex machina, and although I didn’t like that Adela wasn’t told what was happening until the very last minute, I kind of felt she deserved all that anxiety, frankly.
As always, a beautifully written and highly literate book. Five stars and I can’t wait for the next in the series.
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