In 1809 Rose Davenport almost dies of chicken pox and
fever. But she recovers and is told she is marrying, for a
gentleman desires her dowry. Aged seventeen and
unpresented at Court, she has no say in her life and
accepts that her father is making a safe match for her.
But the young man who offers for her hand, trying to ignore
her blemishes, resents having to marry to save his family's
estates.
A miserable wedding and honeymoon follows for Rose, whose
shorn hair and emaciated figure give her no confidence and
don't flatter her to her new husband. Only her piano
playing excels. Gilbert, a Viscount, had hoped to marry his
young sweetheart and is dreadfully disappointed by having
to do his duty. The breakdown of communication leads to
Gil's riding back to London and leaving Rose ensconced at
his Northumberland house, where she remains unvisited for
the next five years.
Bored and regretful, Rose has become a true steward of the
estate, and now takes matters into her own hands. She
travels to London and stays with a lady friend, and meets
Gil at a masked ball. By now she has heard that he has had
one mistress after another, and she entices him to betray
his wife one more time. He has no idea who she is, but
after a night of passion with a voluptuous beauty he does
know that he wants to see more of her. She has vanished
however, and Gil cannot find her. The vicious gossip mill
is in full swing and Rose wonders if she should set Gil
free....
A nicely toned romance, UNFORGIVABLE shines a spotlight on
the role of women at this time, as the carriers of wealth
without permission to be women of substance in their own
right. Little is said about the lower classes even when
Rose is improving their circumstances on the estate; what
surprised me more was that nothing was said of the
Napoleonic wars, when both Gil and his younger brother
would surely have been joining some regiment and needing
heirs in case they were killed in battle. Life was not all
balls and card parties at this time. Joanna Chambers has
done her research into the lives of wealthy women during
this period, but I did find it one-sided. The romance is
ultimately a positive story which will endear it to ugly
ducklings everywhere.
Gil Truman has eyes only for the beautiful Tilly—until he
is forced to marry plain, sickly Rose Davenport to reclaim
the lands his father foolishly gambled away. After a
disastrous wedding night tainted with his bitterness, he
deposits Rose at his remote Northumbrian estate, soothing
his guilt with the thought that she need never lay eyes on
him again.
Five years after the mortifying wedding night that
destroyed all her romantic fantasies, Rose is fed up with
hearing second- and third-hand reports of Gil’s
philandering ways. She is no longer the shy, homely girl he
left behind, but a strong, confident woman who knows how to
run an estate. And knows what she wants—her husband, back
in their marriage bed.
Gil doesn’t recognize the bold, flirtatious woman he meets
at a ball, with or without her mask. Yet he is bewitched
and besotted, and their night together is the most
passionate he has ever known.
But when he confesses his sins to the beautiful stranger,
the truth rips open the old wounds of their blighted
history. Threatening any hope of a future together.
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