England - 1854

Faced with the unwanted news that her father has arranged a marriage for her, Lady Cordelia Bannister immediately forms a plan to change her fate. It’s not that she doesn’t want to marry or that her prospective husband-to-be is an American. It’s not even a question about love. No, at age twenty-five, Cordelia realizes she may not have another opportunity to wed. It’s just that Cordelia is a modern, independent woman used to determining her own course. Her passion for travel has taken her to foreign and exotic lands, and she has even become a published author of travel articles. Arranged marriages, in Cordelia’s opinion, are old-fashioned and simply not done anymore.

Cordelia, however, cannot just simply refuse to do her father’s bidding, for he has explained that the match will infuse the family with some much needed money. Therefore, she has agreed to get to know Mr. Daniel Sinclair through correspondence. Secretly, she is impersonating her longtime companion, Sarah, so she can meet Mr. Sinclair’s secretary, a Mr. Warren Lewis, and glean some much needed information about his employer. Of course, the best laid plans are not always easy to execute, for even though Warren is easy to talk to, he is entirely distracting with his dark eyes and wide shoulders. Each time they meet, which is often, Cordelia forgets her true purpose. She hasn’t learned much about Daniel Sinclair but she knows that Warren Lewis quite steals her breath away, and now she is in a quandary for she fears she has fallen for the wrong man.

Daniel Sinclair is concerned that he will not escape the marital state much longer. Indeed, the pact he made with three other bachelors to remain unwed is fast crumbling. Two are now leg-shackled, and it occurs to Daniel that their tontine is cursed. Of course, it does not help that his father keeps finding brides for him. Daniel just recently managed to extricate himself from an agreement his father made, only to learn that once again his parent has negotiated a match for him. But an arranged marriage is out of the question. Now Daniel has to find a way out without offending his fiancée, or ruin the business deal that would have come with the marriage. Fortunately, he has met the lovely companion to his prospective bride-to-be and has begun to lay the ground work for a broken betrothal. When Sarah Palmer mistakes Daniel for his secretary, Warren, Daniel sees his opportunity for escape. He can lead Sarah to believe that Daniel would never suit Cordelia so that Cordelia will want to cry off. But how will everyone involve feel when they learn that Daniel wants Cordelia’s companion instead, for Sarah is everything he could hope for in a wife. Now Daniel faces a bigger dilemma, for he’s afraid he has fallen for the wrong woman.

At this point, you may be asking what is a tontine, who is pretending to be whom, and is SECRETS OF A PROPER LADY worth the effort to figure it all out? Let me assure you that SECRETS OF A PROPER LADY is absolutely time well spent, even if it sends you to a dictionary. And there’s no question of becoming confused in a plot full of identity swapping. The story is delightful and calls to mind, at least for older readers perhaps, what one might see on an I Love Lucy show, for Cordelia really has the best intentions but she’s impulsive and hasn’t quite thought through her actions. Meanwhile, her companion, Sarah, an unwilling accomplice, knows Cordelia’s idea to switch places is pure folly. But Cordelia is not the only one guilty of foolhardy schemes because our hero, Daniel, is a dab hand at tangling himself into very convoluted messes. But what fun it is to see how these two schemers interact. Their scenes are full of witty repartee as well as an underlying sexual tension that steadily grows throughout the story. Readers are treated to both laugh-out-loud moments and sweetly romantic episodes that will make one sigh.

SECRETS OF A PROPER LADY is just a really well-crafted, feel-good romp. It hardly strays from the lighted-hearted romance between two amicable characters, which is just fine because Daniel and Cordelia are extremely charming and their story is a wonderful hoot. Don’t miss it.

Sandra Brill