The Country Girl

Despite many years looking, unmarried Richard Mathan, Marquis of St Austell is unable to find any young lady to whom he can contemplate being married. His selfish cousin Giles now stands to inherit the title and the estate and has made no secret of the fact that upon Richard's death he will sell what he can and move to London, Richard therefore needs an heir and for that he needs a bride.

Becoming lost in the lanes of the Cotswolds he meets Mary Sinclair. Discovering she is the granddaughter of his father's oldest friend and that the family have fallen on hard times, St. Austell decides that as he has no preference for any particular lady he might as well offer for Miss Sinclair thus assisting the family and securing a wife at the same time. Ignoring the fact that the country bred Miss Sinclair has no idea how to go on in society and possesses none of the skills a man usually looks for in a wife the marriage takes place in short order and the couple travel to London where the bride sets society buzzing by haggling with traders in a public market and then becoming caught up in a crowd hurrying to see the reformer and anti-establishment figure of Henry Hunt.

With no experience Mary is faced with the predatory and well informed Miss Elizabeth Cardew who bluntly tells her she was a second choice bride and a poor second at that. The marriage only happened at all because he was punishing Miss Cardew for her rejection. Why else, she asks, would her husband refuse to consummate the marriage even though he was desperate for an heir? Hardly before the ink is dry on the marriage certificate Mary is forced to contemplate the possibility that the union may soon be dissolved.

This is a romance and whodunit set against the backdrop the rolling Cotswold hills, Regency London society and the wild Cornish coast. Mary must deal with a sinking ship in a storm, dissatisfied miners, the kidnap and attempted murder of her husband, vicious smugglers, a dramatic night rescue and the fact that her husband seems oddly reluctant to consummate the marriage.

Then there are a number of suspicious events. Someone seems determined to do away with them. Who is behind it all? Both Giles and Miss Cardew would benefit from their deaths but St Austell seems reluctant to accept they are involved.