Both are becoming frustrated and upset, but neither really understands why.
When Matthew tries to warn her off, she takes offense, and their already strained relationship takes another beating - until she realizes that Matthew truly does have her best interests at heart, when her poet baldly asks her for money that she doesn't have. He takes his pointers from Clarissa and begins courting one of the Season's Incomparables, but finds he can barely stand her social-climbing mother or the girl's own desire for wealth that she can show off.Ĭlarissa, meanwhile, becomes besotted with a fortune-hunting poet. Matthew is determined to find a wife that will agree to a loveless marriage so that he can marry before his beloved uncle, his last living relative, dies. The two of them find themselves arguing more often than not, but pretending to be besotted with each other to keep her father in the dark. Clarissa doesn't want to go to her Great Aunt Aggie's, and Matthew still needs to acquire a wife, so he proposes a deal: if she will help him learn some of the finer points of the courtship ritual, he will not tell her father that she turned down his offer of marriage, which will buy her some time to figure out Plan B. Her refusal leaves them both at loose ends. He wants a marriage that is actually a business arrangement, with no attachment, romantic or otherwise.
He is beautiful - a Corinthian - but emotionless. Her father finally gives her an ultimatum: marry Matthew Carstairs, the Earl of Langdon, or go to live as an indentured servant with her Great Aunt Agatha in Yorkshire.Ĭlarissa agrees to meet Lord Langdon, but she turns down his proposal flat.
Her father is beyond ready for her to be married and out of his house (she's already had 4 Seasons on the marriage mart), but she will agree to nothing less than a love match.
This is a delightful, easy read and the perfect way to start my personal mini-challenge this year of reading traditional Regency romances.
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