Sophia Nash

Lord Will and Her Grace

Signet, 2005.

They entered the deserted outer circle of Regent's Park and with the flick of the whip, Sophie signalled her mare into a canter, which soon became a gallop when Lord Drummond's gelding tried to catch them...The mare handily won the impromptu race ending at Macclesfield Bridge. Sophie turned her head to give Lord Drummond some good-natured ribbing before she heard a shout from the groom. The young man pointed toward something in the misty distance in the direction of Primrose Hill across the road. "They're duelling, miss," the groom, Jemmy, called out.

Ignoring Drummond's protests Sophie goes to investigate, and is alarmed to discover that one of the duellists is Lord Will, for whom she retains a soft spot despite previous evidence of his wicked ways. It soon transpires that she didn't know the half of it. 'Sophie was still reeling from the revelation of William's debauchery when Mr. Farquhar whistled to Lord Drummond. "Escort Miss Somerset from here, for God's sake"'.

The author, a rising star of the Regency Romance genre, cites Jane Austen and the Brontes as early influences, but despite a 'Reader, I married him' ending there are no discernible traces in her prose style.