The Emerald Duchess

The previous reviewer gave a very good thumbnail summary of the plot of this old Barbara Hazard title. What struck me was the heart-wrenching intensity of emotion in the story. Her hero in this novel, the Duke of Wrotherham, may be an alpha hero but he has a capacity for love and feeling that makes him incredibly attractive. It's a story that stands up to the best of Mary Balogh or Jo Beverley with an emotional level that's not often encountered in Regency fiction. I fell in love with the Duke and the particular circumstances of the heroine's past make the whole of their affaire that much more poignant. Truly a touching and wonderful read - one to be savoured a second and perhaps third time.

Emily Wyndham grows up ignorant of her mother's career as a courtesan by which she supports herself and provides Emily with an education. After her mother dies, Emily learns of this legacy and knows she cannot hope to escape her mother's reputation but hopes she can escape the same career. Changing her name, she becomes a lady's maid but her beauty is a constant problem as she evades one persistent man after another. The most insistent is the Duke of Wrotherham and it is to him Emily finally gives herself, after he has saved her several times from mishap and she has fallen in love with him. When she learns she is pregnant, however, and the duke has almost decided to marry her in spite of what he thinks are her lower-class origins, Emily flees. Amnesiac from an accident, when the besotted Wrotherham finds Emily she does not know him and he takes this chance to marry her, knowing that she would refuse him if her memory was intact. When it returns, she is furious and her words drive her husband away. When she and the infant heir follow him to London, will he receive her? Can they make something of this marriage? You will read this one many times--it is one of Hazard's best.