It is 1818.
The bloody battle of Waterloo is three years in the past but for Giles Fenwick, Earl of Rockcliffe the memories have yet to fade. Giles bears the physical scars of battle and the emotional scars of the long years of war, of friends and comrades lost. Unexpectedly come into the title, he feels ill at ease in the polite world, and despises those who fawn over his wealth and rank. He has no intention of offering for one of the Season's debutantes and marrying for the sake of an heir.
When Cordelia Summers, daughter of a wealthy City merchant, reluctantly agrees to a London season it is purely to please her much loved father who is anxious to see her respectably settled in life. Intelligent and strong-willed, Cordelia has no wish to barter her fortune for a title and no wish to be married to any man who wants to curb her independent spirit.
A brief and unexpected meeting in a wayside tavern throws Giles and Cordelia together. The cynical Earl and the high-spirited merchant's daughter form an unlikely alliance based on their mutual determination to avoid matrimony. But Giles and Cordelia quickly discover that friendship can easily turn into much more, and that all marriages are not created equal...
The Reluctant Debutante is the second of the Regency Romances by the author of the popular
Peninsular War Saga and the
Manxman series. These books follow the fortunes of some of the characters beyond the battlefield and into peacetime.
