This book is a revised version of the earlier Extreme
Measures (2002).
Set in Denver, Colorado in 1879, CHARITY HOUSE COURTSHIP
explores some of the social issues of the day and looks
behind the scenes of the hospitality industry at that
time. A charming relationship is the foreground of the
story and there is plenty of interesting detail.
Laney O'Connor is desperate to repay a loan to an
unscrupulous banker who has shortened the term by six
months. She is tapping a judge of her acquaintance in a
venture which verges on blackmail. Justifying the deal to
herself because the judge pays nothing towards the welfare
of his son, in Laney's care, she meets him in a hotel foyer
and discreetly accepts five hundred dollars.
Marc Dupree, the hotelier, however has noticed the
attractive young lady entering his premises alone, and
suspects that she is a professional companion. He prides
himself on running the finest hotel in Denver and won't
stand for illicit liaisons. Marc collars the young woman
and brings her into his office to explain matters to her
but she refuses to admit anything. Marc isn't surprised -
he can't trust any women since his wife Pearl took off with
all the money she could lay her hands on, and he has
offered jobs to several of the city's working girls to
provide them with an alternative, but finds them
unreliable.
Once Laney gets away all she can think of is protecting
the children in her care. They are called orphans but are
really the children of brothel girls, the men concerned
taking no responsibility. Laney, daughter of such a woman
herself, has to find the rest of the money for her loan on
her house, and to do that she needs to accept Marc's offer
of a receptionist job, however demeaning his attitude. She
turns up to work, but finds her new boss rather too good-
looking for comfort.
I enjoyed the tale and various details, such as the
children playing the new game of baseball and a woman being
addicted to both whiskey and laudanum, an opiate commonly
sold as a sedative. I did think that the action was slowed
by the two main characters spending several pages looking
at each other, rather too often. The perennial double
standard, whereby a man could walk into a house of ill
repute but a woman was scorned for having any association
with such a house, is well displayed.
Thanks to a troubled childhood, Laney O'Connor knows the
struggles faced by the offspring of society's most desperate
women. These young innocents need a safe place, which Laney
seeks to provide at Charity House. When foreclosure
threatens her haven, she'll let nothing stop her from
keeping the orphanage open. Not even handsome hotel owner
Marc Dupree. A series of misunderstandings put Laney and
Marc at odds, but telling him the truth would mean breaking
a promise—and jeopardizing the funds Charity House needs.
And as Marc and Laney struggle with faith and trust, a
secret from the past could ruin everything.…
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