When Lord Hawkridge inherits a penniless marquessate, he must abandon his courtship of the lowborn girl he loves. Years later, she rises from commoner to textiles heiress. Hawk has never banished her from his heart. Here’s their chance to share his home! But how can he convince a woman whose trust he destroyed that he desires her far more than her money?
Faith Digby’s chaotic world is too full to bother with men. She controls half a boarding school, one life-endangering secret, and two recently gentrified parents. There’s no time for the old flame roaring back into her life. Not when admitting she still loves him would imperil everything and everyone she holds dear…
Companion Book to Lord of Night by the same author where we see things from Hawksbridge’s point of view. Despite being the legitimate son who not only inherited his title, a level of respectability, he also his father’s debts and a grudge against his illegitimate half brother. Whilst it’s the fourth in the series, it can be read as a standalone – there are the occasional nod to events in other books, but you would only pick that up if you’d read the other book.
In trying to become friends with Spaulding, Hawkridge accepts a dinner invitation at the school, only to find that one of the women running the school is no other than Faith Digby, a woman he was in love with years before. They were unofficially engaged to, but he broke up with – via letter – when he realised just how bad a state his father had left him and his mother and that neither of them were right for each other.
He is still in love with Faith, and thinks it would be relatively easy for her to accept his apology, and he can start to court her again. Little does he know how much pain he’s inflicted on her – having gotten her pregnant before they split, he doesn’t know that his daughter has been living with Faith as her ward. When he finds out, the child becomes a pawn between the two of them as Hawksbridge doesn’t want the taint of being born out of wedlock. It is a reminder that until the 20th century, children were seen pretty much as property and were more often awarded to the father than to the mother.
Meanwhile, Faith’s family have gone up in the world, and despite being “in trade” (the very thing that made Faith not good enough to marry previously), the family are still in trade but are also very wealthy. Faith’s parents adore Christina, but are becoming frustrated with Faith and her dedication to not getting married and insisting that her dowry is given to the school. They finally agree that the dowry will be given to the school, as and when she gets married.
In the end Hawksbridge and Faith marry, more out of convenience than anything, and Hawksbridge begins to realise that there’s a whole side of life that he’s been missing out on – the generosity of his half brother and Faith’s family in particular. He sets out to be quite rigid with Christina, doing things all his own way, but soon learns that he needs to compromise with both Christina and Faith in order to get what he wants…..such as allowing Chris to visit Faith’s parents on a daily basis, rather than cutting all contact immediately. In doing this, he learns not only how to be a father, but gets to know his in-laws better in the process.
Despite his rather waspish mother’s disdain for Faith (both as a person, and because of her lower rank in society), she soon comes round to liking the woman, and having Christina (the daughter) in the house.
Both of the main characters are stubborn, strong willed, have kept secrets from each other, and have to learn to compromise in order to make things work. That means that they are not completely likeable at all times during the book – Hawk for his arrogance, and Faith for having kept Christina a secret from Hawk for so long (though it’s not like he gave her the chance to tell him).
The secondary characters of Faith’s parents and Hawk’s mother are lightly drawn, which is fine. All other characters are written about elsewhere, so dont need to be detailed too deeply here.
All in all, a decent addition to this series and genre, much better than some of the others that I’ve read recently (and have wanted to throw across the room!). Looking forward to the next one!
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