Barely a Lady

Eileen Dreyer

After years of hiding, Olivia Grace is discovered by her ex-husband's suave cousin. Jack Wyndham, Earl of Gracechurch, divorced Olivia five years earlier and killed her cousin in a dual. Jack then fled England to prevent arrest. His cousin Gervaise had arranged her denouement with Jack, then chased her since, including telling Olivia he was the reason her son had died. Olivia loved Jack desperately and hates Gervaise.

She is in Brussels during the battle of Waterloo when discovered. She was employed as a companion for a woman and her three marriageable daughters - but they leave Brussels without her. Fortunately, she makes friends with the notorious Lady Kate Seaton. Lady Kate and her friend Grace Fairchild take Olivia in. When Gervaise threatens her, they pull ranks around her.

Then Olivia gets an emergency call to the battlefield after the English victory at Waterloo. She responds quickly, passes the dead and dying, and discovers Jack badly wounded. Why is he wearing a French uniform? She strips it off of him and sneaks him back to Lady Kate's home. He is muttering in French in his delirium and has incriminating documents on him. The women hide him away in the house at the same time they have wounded soldiers in the downstairs.

They wait for him to wake up and explain himself. Unfortunately when he wakes up he has lost five years of his memory. He is still in love with and married to Olivia. He has forgotten that he cast her off, fought the duel, fled to the Caribbean, and all the traveling since. He doesn't remember any possible disloyalty with the French against the English.

Eileen Dreyer has taken an old storyline and given it a suspenseful, romantic life. Amnesia is used over and over, yet it still works. In Barely a Lady Olivia is a strong person carrying a large load. She still loves Jack, but has let him go. Her life still revolves around her baby - even though his illness left her alone years earlier. She knows Gervaise is still a threat. Yet she perseveres. She finds solid, wonderful friends in Lady Kate, Grace, and Lady Kate's companion Bea.

The relationship between Olivia and Jack is well done - sexy as expected in this type of novel - and develops well as she fights her memories and he tries to regain his. Gervaise is creepy and sly. Lady Kate is a bit over the top, yet I know she'll blossom properly when it's her turn for one of the Drake's Rakes novel.

Dreyer's writing pulled me in and I quickly knew this would be a book to enjoy.

Barely a Lady also gives a a lesson on the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo. I only knew that Napoleon was defeated by Wellington there. I didn't know that Brussels is the nearest city and where the English camped behind the lines. It also emphasized the gentry following the army - the parties between battles, the social life, etc. I'll be looking forward to the next novel in the series.

Notice:  Explicit sexual content, Non-graphic violence

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Barely a Lady
Never a Gentleman
Always a Temptress