A vicar's daughter with a greedy brother is drugged and
offered for sale at a country tavern. Alasdair, a
depressed gentleman, pays for her and lets her sleep in his
bed, then having heard her story offers to wed her to save
her name though she is not of his class. Mary Smith decides
that the Marquis is insane - but she cannot very well
refuse.
In HERO OF MY HEART Alasdair is an opium addict to quell
battle memories; this is 1814 and the reign of Napoleon is
not long over. Saving a schoolteacher by driving to
Scotland for a hasty wedding may be more than he is capable
of, but he intends to try. Devoid of his drug, he goes into
withdrawal and Mary, not understanding, thinks he is ill -
a frightening prospect. She wants to go to London to find
her mother, not knowing if she'll even be welcomed.
Without a man's protection or money she won't get very far,
so she decides that all she can do is to look after her
potential husband, even if that means fighting off a
highwayman and well-bred rogues who intend to discredit
Alasdair.
The characters and situations are so different in this
romance that it really holds the reader's attention, and
Mary is a fine practical girl, unmarried at twenty-five
because nobody ever asked, determined to survive. The
blacksmith's wedding is brief and the couple celebrate in
bed, far from the society wedding that Alasdair could have
expected. As a schoolteacher Mary is better suited than
most fine misses to managing money and a recalcitrant
student, but she still has a long road to face before
London.
I thought the withdrawal symptoms ended rather quickly.
But coming off opium must have been very difficult - it was
available as an ingredient of laudanum, though Megan
Frampton shows the concentrated form as pills. I really did
not like the staccato punctuation of "This. Is. My.
Coachman." Not only does it read badly, English
aristocracy didn't and don't speak that way. The action
occurs around a lot of travelling by various means,
bringing home the reality that travel took a long time when
the fastest one could cover any real distance was eight
miles an hour. Both characters are on a journey of self-
discovery, and they find that they are stronger together
than apart. HERO OF MY HEART is an interesting adult novel
for those who enjoy historical romances.
Less than a month after her vicar father passes and she
learns that her mother still lives, Mary Smith finds herself
(and her virginity) up for public auction in a seedy pub by
her stepbrother, Matthew. With no choice in the matter, Mary
resigns herself to accept whatever fate brings. Mary
certainly doesn’t anticipate a hasty marriage to Alasdair,
the marquess who rescued her that evening.
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