Fleeting Fancy

"Fleeting Fancy" is a fine example of a Regency screwball comedy. It's not a true romance in the normal sense at all, as titular heroine Primula Greetwell had been abandoned by her short-term husband, Lord Severn, a few weeks after the wedding nine years before. Severn tricked her; she wasn't really married at all.When his father, the Earl of Malhythe, finds out, he exiles Severn to India, hoping that will civilize him, or that the Indian people will rid him of the problem.Flash forward nine years. Primula is now 25, Severn is in his mid-30s, and he wants to come home. So, his father the Earl says to him that he'll allow it if he just married the person his father wants him to marry sight unseen.And he does, like an obedient (idiot) son. And then, because the Earl is still mad at him, he's instructed Primula not to talk about the past and to pretend she's never seen him before, and he's told his son to make her happy, or else.Now, anyone reading this summation might be asking, "So, Barb, why do you like this book? Not much plot here." Well, it's a screwball comedy! It reminded me of a Regency as done by Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn when they were feeling particularly cranky, and with lots of the witty byplay that characterized those actors.The subplots are interesting, but incomplete. The first one deals with the courtesan Aspasia, who is the Earl's mistress. She appears to be almost forty, so she can't marry the Earl; it's just "Not Done" in the Regency period. But she can love him and be with him discreetly, and so she is. She's a high class courtesan, not a mere mistress; she could pick and choose anyone, even at her age; that's made perfectly clear.Aspasia comes along Primula's relation Sarah Jane, who's lying in the street. When Sarah Jane had been propositioned, she ran and went for help, but the servants and "respectable" people turned her away, despite the fact that she was an upper class woman down on her luck (her father had left her and her mother penniless, so she'd gone to work as a governess). Only Aspasia would help her, and if Aspasia hadn't found her, she would have died.So, of course, Severn's young nephew gets involved with Sarah Jane while she's staying at Aspasia's, and he's sensible enough not to care -- but "High Society" surely would, and Aspasia knows it. They run off to get married, which causes Aspasia to join forces with Primula. They chase after the nephew and Sarah Jane, hoping to keep them from folly -- which causes Severn to go after Primula, which finally makes Primula see that they're destined for each other. (I know their reconciliation scene was a bit before the "merry chase" scenes, but I view their true marriage starting right there.) After this, there's a Shakespeare-style denouement that explains why the Earl was so nasty (Severn has already apologized to Primula for his earlier bad behavior), then everyone manages to live happily every after -- even the Earl and Aspasia.Granted, witho