Review: "You can't keep a secret in Regency England". How true!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2013
When Gilbert Baring-Gould, Lord Kerr, was asked at a ball when he would wed he was heard to have replied:  "not until she has my babe in her belly and my ring on her finger". The voluminous correspondence that ensued, both to Lord Kerr from relatives as well as to his fiancée Emma Loudan – who by the way identified it as Shakespeare – from her friends, neighbors, and relatives becomes amusingly distorted from start to finish.  Nevertheless from the time of the Lord's brother's untimely death followed by a prolonged sojourn in France, Gil is never seen without a Frenchwoman on his arm. Although he intends to honor the  marriage arranged by his father and her father when he was 12 and she 6, he's not yet ready to do so. And up to now Emma has been enjoying her freedom in St. Albans too well herself to push for the formal betrothal.  But after his scandalous response to the impertinent question, pressure is put to bear on the rakish Lord, AND the lovely, lively and competitive Emma takes matters in hand.  Off she goes to London to a ball masquerading as a Frenchwoman who knew Gil when, where she fully intends to meet Gil again and seduce him silly.  Read on and enjoy what happens  as a result of their sensual jousting.