A lovely romance. Tenderly written and beautifully unveiled. Smooth and easy reading. The reader basks in the phases of this provocative romance – a love affair between two heartwarming people. Lady Heather Duval, is not the standard beauty of romance reading. She is an attractive, gentle person, but she is not perfect – he maimed her -- her own father . . . “A small, black-haired child toddled up . . . next to her father’s leg. Curiously she stretched out a tiny finger toward the smooth metal. Her father whirled on her. “Don’t touch that brat!” he snarled. With the back of his hand, he dealt her a blow across the cheek that sent her tumbling to the floor. Her lips trebled, but she made not a sound . . . (Her mother) paid little heed. “Find your bed,” she ordered brusquely, “and don’t come out till morning.” The child crawled to a straw pallet in the corner. Shivering, she curled into a tight little ball.” Such was the beginning of Heather Duval Elliot’s life. Heart wenching.
A childhood filled with sadness, “Did you really think we liked you, Heather? . . . Well, no one does. No one wants to be near you . . . You’re not like us, Heather Duval.”
Heather Duval was the orphaned ward of the Earl of Stonehurst and his countess. Two wonderful chosen parents who raised her with warmth and love . . . “No you are not a child of my womb, not a child of his loins, but you are a child of my heart -- of our hearts. No child of mine, of ours, could be more our own that you.”
But Heather knew a man would never love her nor would she know the joy of a child against her breast . . . ”Tears ran . . . Her shoulders shook, “I’m not beautiful . . . I . . . I’m . . . I’m deformed.”
Damien Tremayne, the Earl of Deverell was the rage of London, eligible, wickedly attractive, and he wanted Heather. “Damien stood there, in the center of the ballroom . . . she knew the guests had gone utterly quiet. Every eye in the ballroom was turned upon him . . . And then he did something she never would have expected. Indeed, the last thing on earth she expected . . . He held out his hand to her.”
This is the joy of reading. A wonderful book
- Rating: A minus
- Sensuality: Heated.
