First published 1994
Colonel Sandhurst runs the Poor Relations Hotel in 1790s London, but Sir Randolph Gray owes him money he cannot collect. When Gray's seventeen-year-old daughter Frederica faces a forced marriage to the corpulent Lord Bewley, Sandhurst offers her sanctuary at his establishment. The arrangement becomes complicated when Lord Bewley mistakes a chambermaid named Mary Jones for the missing heiress. Sandhurst sees an opportunity and demands ransom money from the desperate Sir Randolph for his daughter's return. Meanwhile, Captain Peter Manners arrives at the hotel already engaged to a woman named Belinda, but he quickly becomes smitten with the spirited Frederica. As romantic entanglements multiply and Lord Bewley continues his pursuit of the wrong woman, Frederica must navigate between her growing feelings for the captain and the danger of discovery. The seventy-year-old colonel finds himself orchestrating an increasingly complex web of deception and romance.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, adventure, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, mistaken-identity
Setting: London, Poor Relations Hotel
Period: 1790s
152 pages · Hardcover · St Martins Press