Review: The Unofficial Suitor by Charlotte Louise Dolan (1992)

A strange book, which leaves me a bit uncertain what to make of it. There’s some truly dark stuff in the background here, and sometimes it feels as if the author threw in everything but the kitchen sink, but there’s also a wonderful romance (I love a man who knows precisely what he wants) and some amusing moments, too.

Here’s the premise: Lady Cassiopeia Anderby is living a hand-to-mouth existence since her brother, the Earl of Blackstone, has gambled away the family fortune and has been draining the estate of funds for years. But a flying visit shows him that he still has one asset left to sell, namely, Cassie herself. She’s a rare beauty, so she’ll fetch a good price on the marriage mart, won’t she? By threatening Cassie’s younger sister, he persuades her to come to London for the season.

Travelling by stage coach, Cassie, her sister and step-mother Ellen find themselves in company with three very unsavoury-looking characters and when an unexpected snow storm strands them at a country inn (cliches? In a Regency romance? Surely not!), she avoids them as much as possible. They all have to eat, however, so she makes a deal with them – if they bring in wood and see to the fires, she’ll prepare food. The three ladies survive the ordeal unscathed, to Cassie’s surprise, and the next morning the snow has miraculously vanished, so they go on their merry way.

What Cassie doesn’t know (but the reader does) is that the three (Richard Hawke, John Tuke and Perry, now a viscount) are survivors of the American wars and much other drama, returning reluctantly to London to help Perry deal with his recent ennoblement and assorted relatives, and somewhat more reputable than they look. Richard is so enamoured of Cassie’s spirited practicality that he decides on the spot that he’s going to marry her. His friends deride his choice, since he’s now rich enough to buy himself a better wife than the servant that Cassie appears to be. Needless to say, London brings surprises for both sides – she discovers that Richard and Perry are moving in society like respectable gentlemen, and they discover that the servant girl is an earl’s daughter.

The romance is therefore laid out from the start. The obstacle is Cassie’s brother, who gives her a list of three potential suitors that he will accept, and Richard’s name isn’t on it. But there’s another obstacle, too, which is that Cassie finds Richard terrifying. There’s a hint in the book that this is because she’s an innocent, and its her own feelings that terrify her, but I’m not sure I buy that, and frankly, I found her weeping and wailing at the very prospect of innocuous events like driving in the park with him irritating in the extreme. Get a grip, girl! After all, he may be an imposing sort of man, but he’s never been anything but unfailingly kind to her.

Richard being a man who’s (literally) pulled himself up from the gutter, he isn’t going to let a trifling matter like other suitors stand in his way. The stratagems he employs to get rid of them, one by one, are highly enjoyable, even if not strictly honourable. All right, not honourable at all, and his friend Perry does remonstrate with him at one point, but they justify it quite elegantly to themselves. I wasn’t convinced, but at least the author addresses the point.

The romance resolves itself just as you might expect, and there are several other pairings thrown in almost at random towards the end. Memo to authors: not every minor character needs to get their happy ever after, but if you’re going to do it, please try to make it more convincing than this. But for Richard and Cassie, all comes right very satisfactorily, and the evil brother gets his comeuppance, too. Only one major historical error – no, you can’t simply renounce your title and walk away. You don’t have to take your seat in the House of Lords, but the title is settled irrevocably on the heir specified in the original letters patent when the title was created.

An enjoyable read, and I’m used to the plethora of Americanisms now, so that wasn’t more than a few eye-rolling moments. So why only three stars? I really found this an unsettling book. The hero has a very dark past, and although he may be unfailingly honourable in his dealings with the heroine, elsewhere his moral compass is not all it should be. He’s not an out and out evil villain, like Cassie’s brother, but he doesn’t scruple to do whatever it takes to get his own way. If he had given Cassie the option of whether to marry him or not, I could (perhaps) have forgiven him, but he doesn’t. He’s determined to marry her, whether she wants it or not (and she doesn’t; she’s hounded into it), and even though he promises not to touch her until she’s ready, I wouldn’t put any money on him holding to that if she really kept on saying no. So even though I zipped through the book at a rapid pace, and never for one moment considered abandoning it, I disapproved of the hero so much I’m going with three stars.