2.5 stars
Jack Featherstone’s father and brother were shameless gamblers and fortune hunters, marrying rich and squandering their wives’ money with no compunction. As the unappreciated second son, Jack swore he would never marry unless he could support his family in a proper way, and certainly never stoop to fortune hunting to secure himself a life of luxury. Never being able to rely on his male relatives meant he established closer bonds to his Eton chums instead. So when his best friend Stuart, the Duke of Margrave, gathers all his friends and asks them for assistance in a scheme that will directly lead to the ruination of a man, Jack doesn’t hesitate, even if it means moving to America for a year, pretending to be close to a man he despises, in order to orchestrate Stuart’s revenge.
As the plan is in its last stages, and Frederick Van Hausen, the man who did despicable things to Edie, now the Duchess of Margrave, is getting desperate, Jack is watching the man like a hawk, worried that he’s going to find some way of escaping personal and financial ruin. When it looks like Van Hausen is preparing to elope with Miss Linnet Holland, who is both beautiful and comes with a staggering dowry, Jack has to think fast. Interrupting before Van Hausen can propose, and kissing the young lady in front of her own mother, accompanied by one of New England’s chief gossips, is the first thing that pops into his head. Linnet, wary of fortune hunters and outraged by Jack’s heavy-handed behaviour, refuses to even countenance having her reputation saved by marriage to someone so arrogant and presumptious. While she previously refused to consider marriage to a British peer, she is now determined to find one, who is willing to marry her, despite the tarnish to her reputation. Anyone, except Jack Featherstone, that is.
Linnet and her mother travel to England, where Linnet engages the services of London’s premier matchmaker, the Marchioness of Trubridge. Jack follows, determined to do right by Linnet and persuade her to accept his hand in marriage. As the matchmaker was formerly married to his scapegrace of a brother and now to one of his closest friends, she’s aware that he’s not the unscrupulous cad his brother was, and hopes she’ll at least consider him a worthwhile candidate for Linnet’s hand in marriage. He has a week, at a houseparty with several other eligible and eager suitors, to convince the proud and distrustful Miss Holland that while their first meeting was less than ideal, he will make her the perfect husband.
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