She debates with herself about accepting Marcel’s offer but ultimately says yes. Now Viola is alone, as she insisted on being, but at a village inn, rather than at home.
Viola had been looking forward to the reunion but once her former relatives arrived, some part of her snapped and she had to get away. Before she arrived at the village, Viola was in Bath, where the Westcotts, her late faux-husband’s family, had gathered to celebrate the christening of Viola’s youngest grandchild. Marcel invites Viola to explore the festivities with him.įor her part, Viola is also stranded, in her case due to a near-broken carriage axle. On a whim, he sends André home in his carriage, thus stranding himself at the village, where an end-of-harvest celebration is to be held to raise money for a new church roof. Marcel doesn’t know that the forty-two year old Viola, mother to three grown children, goes by Miss Kingsley these days, but he wonders if she would be more amenable to an affair with him now. More recently, Viola’s late husband was revealed to be a bigamist and her marriage to him invalidated. Who should Marcel spot at the inn but Viola Westcott née Kingsley? Fourteen years ago, Marcel had a flirtation with Viola, but she, a married woman with young children, sent him away and nothing ever came of it. There is a tragedy in Marcel’s past that he blames himself for, and he carries a great deal of guilt. There is almost nothing I dislike more in a romance than a neglectful parent, but I didn’t have a big problem here, because it is amply evident that Marcel loves his children and has only left them in the care of their strict aunt and uncle (but for biannual visits) because he genuinely believes they are far better off with Jane and Charles than with him. For the past sixteen years, he has avoided his responsibilities, which are many, and include his son and daughter, Bertrand and Estelle, seventeen-year-old twins. Not that the widowed, thirty-nine year old Marcel has led a life of industry. Marcel Lamarr, Marquess of Dorchester, is stranded at a remote country inn with his brother André when a horseshoe comes loose on one of his carriage horses, leaving him at loose ends. I don’t know how to reconcile my enjoyment and uneasiness to a grade therefore, there will not be a grade on this review. It involves a spoiler (one I have hidden), a potentially triggering one that disturbed me. Then, at the 80% mark, something was revealed that threw me for a loop.
I enjoyed the first 79% of this novel tremendously and was thinking this was the best new Mary Balogh book I had read in ages. Let me begin by stating that I am leaving Someone to Care ungraded. Janine Book Reviews family-reunion / Marquess / Regency England / reversal of fortune / second chances / triggers / Westcott 58 Comments
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