The Chick: Lily Balfour, she has been left Balfour manor upon the death of her grandfather, however the house is in poor repair and with no large income she must go to London to find preferably a stupid and rich husband who will have sufficient funds to repair the house back to what it once was.
The Dude: Derek Knight, has returned to England from India upon orders to secure much needed funds for the army. But when he requests the money and it is not brought forth he becomes suspicious and must find the missing funds of the army will not succeed. While he is in London he makes up for his absence and is quickly known as the 'stud of the season'.
The Plot in 10 (ish):
Lily: Now iv got a falling down mansion I have to go to London and find me a rich husband, who wont notice my lack of virginity.(to Lundy) you'll do.
Derek: Hey committee, give me the money so that the army in india can win!
Old man: urm... sure! just give us a few days to get it sorted (shit! Its not all there!)
Lily: hey all you army men just go out for the glory and money and don’t think about how it affects us at home, of course I'm not actually talking about my father who died in India when I was 9!
Derek: I am the perfect catch. Here is my nephew so you can see I am good with children and I am also kind to animals, I shall rescue a horse to prove it, and have you heard the stories of my tantra sex with my mistresses?
Lily: well I need a man to pay for my house and I can't marry a second son!
Derek: dont marry him, I think that he has no money!
Lily: I shall sneak into my future husbands house and find the documents to prove that he isn’t bankrupt. *Caught stealing documents* crap
Derek: *lily saved* fancy a swim in this lake...NAKED?
*Bown Chika wow wow* *Missing money found*
Derek: Iv decided against India, marry me, I have a bit of money saved too!
Huzahh!
The End
The Book:
Lily's grandfather has passed away and has left her Balfour Manor. Due to the early death of her father and cousin the title and money has been passed to a distant cousin and so she does not know how she will be able to afford to look after the manor which is crumbling around them. After much debate her only option is to go to London and find a rich husband, but she must preferably select a stupid husband who will not realise that she is not a virgin.
When she was 15 she was seduced by a gentlemen and almost brought shame to the family. Luckily the episode was hidden from society, but her future husband must never know. With no money to entice she only has her reputation and social standing to recommend her. She chooses Edward Lundy because he is rich and is of lower class and needs her family to confirm him in society.
Derek Knight has returned to London from India on the orders of his commanding officer to acquire the funds which had been ear marked for the army to be sent to them so that they can win the war against the rebellion. However the committee does not seem to be digging in their heels to produce the money. He cannot let his men die due to lack of funds so starts to investigate.
Derek and Lily attend a masked ball, the return of Derek causes a lot of talk and he is now the 'stud of the season'. Lily sees he is not what she needs and must avoid him. Derek however is not used to being refused and so is intrigued by her. The escape the stuffy ball Lily sneaks out to the folly to have some peace and quite. At the same time Derek sneaks out to have a rendezvous with a mistress and comes across Lily in the folly. Believing that it is his mistress Derek starts their rendezvous, only to discover when she turns around that it is in fact the woman who intrigued him earlier. Lily, intrigued by his movements she asks him to continue. But the appearance of the mistress puts an end to their escapade. Lily believes she has got away with it, after all she is wearing a mask. He wont be able to tell who she is!
After a few days and hearing nothing from the committee Derek is getting suspicious and when he is approached by Edward Lundy ,a man on the committee, he takes the opportunity to try and find out more information. Only then he discovers that three hundred thousand pounds is missing form the money and Lundy is worried that they will try to pin it on him. Derek agrees to help him and is introduced to Lundy's future bride, only to discover that she is the woman from the folly! Although he has feelings for her he knows that nothing will happen because she is just a fortune hunter and he will be going back to India to fight. But he wishes to make sure that she is not be harmed by the money scandal.
One of the key things that kept them apart was the fact that he was to go back to India and she needed to restore he family home. And because he is a second son, he will not have the funds required and she will definitely not go and live in India with him. He gradually comes round to the idea of not going to India, but when he tells her to sell the manor she kicks up a fuss(as you would expect, the whole point of going to London was that she didn’t want to sell) but a hour alone gives her chance to psychoanalyse herself and now understands why she didn’t want to sell the place and is now happy to do it. Hmmmm. Not too sure about that.
One thing I don’t like in historical novels is when characters don’t quite act in the manor that they would have in that period. It is when Derek is parading his mistresses in front of everyone and then puts his arm around her and I think I recall him kissing one of them on the cheek. That seems very forward to me for this period, but I'm being pedantic.
The main thing that I got a bit stuck with was the fact that she is seduced when she is only 15 and is persuaded to have sex. It happened a few times, although we don’t quite understand how he got her to do it multiple times as we were told that it hurt her. We don’t find out how it got stopped whether they were caught in the act or what. And if he did it under her mothers nose or just snuck up on little girls in trees. Who knows! But I would imagine that you would associate the affection with an unpleasant experience but that does seem to affect her. When she overhears people talking about stud of the season Derek she is shocked but I think more by the crude remarks than what they are referring to. She is curious about who they are referring to and not what or why it is not like what she experienced. I wonder how her mother had explained what had happened to her. And then when they are in the folly it is she who flirts with him and asks him to kiss her. Now THAT I wasn’t expecting. I'm surprised she is not more guarded or at least cautious of men, but she appears to be jealous and wanton.
Lily just seemed to confuse me a bit. She is inexperienced and what experience she has had I presume she didn’t enjoy, yet she learnt a few tricks and knows how to pleasure him and is not shy or cautious about putting her hands everywhere and has no hesitation to go to the next level.
I liked this book although it seemed to drift off a bit at the end.
I must also say, I have never laughed at a first line of a novel, but when I read “ The poor ladies! They're doomed, aren't they? Whatever shall they do now” I immediately thought in a sottish accent and waited for “we don't have the power captain!” Just me?
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