Another great book from Charlie Lane. Thanks to Wolf Publishing for the ARC. Third in the series “A Gentleman’s Guide to Courtship,” we now get a closer look at the third sister, Prudence, and her brother’s (Duke of Clearford) efforts to get her married. He still hasn’t realized how unhelpful his gentleman’s guide is. Early in the book, he does something that irritates Prudence. Because she knows he always carries knives with him so he can target practice, she asks him, “Where is your knife? Come. I know you have it on your person.” He suspiciously asks her why she wants it, and she responds, “I would like to stab you with it.”
Just like her older sisters, Prudence is determined not to marry, so she spends a good portion of her time trying to evade suitors. And she’s pretty good at it. Unfortunately, Mr. Benjamin Bailey, the American, has an uncanny skill of finding her wherever she is.
Prudence has become best friends with Cora, the “naughty” poet who shares her risque works with women in the secret group from previous insttallments in this series. When her older sisters married, they decided to discontinue their involvement in the lending library, but Prudence has decided to continue the work alongside her friend Cora. Prudence is very organized and punctual. She is also, surprisingly, rather prim and proper and doesn’t wish to step outside of the lines that have been drawn for her (with the exception of marriage, which she is adamantly against). The truth is, she feels as if all of her other sisters outshine her so she tends to “embrace her habitual invisibility.” It’s true; most men don’t seem to notice her, and we find out more about her motivations later, but to her dismay, Mr. Bailey always does.
Ben came to America after his parents died and is single-minded in his commitment to opening a print shop called Bailey’s Prints to honor his dead parents and the business they had in Boston. He believes her drove the business into the ground after they died; it isn’t until much later that we find out he was only 15 and unequipped to handle a business. That doesn’t stop him from feeling guilt. Meanwhile, he hides behind a disheveled and untamed look that keeps proper society from acknowledging him. And his habits of disorganization and lack of discipline are the antithesis to everything that’s important to Prudence.
The Duke of Clearford is puzzled by his sisters and wants to find out what secrets they’ve been keeping from him. He promises to give his shares of the print shop to Ben if Ben will pretend to court Prudence and find out what they’ve been hiding. Due to the duke’s insistence and the goading of Viscount Norton, Ben changes his entire appearance—cuts his hair, shaves his beard, wears clothes that fit properly, and so on. I love what Norton said to Ben regarding courting Prudence (he thought it was genuine): “Can’t be trusted because you don’t take the clear steps to obtain that which you desire. You just sulk about wishing someone would pick you up when you’re a burnt, mangled tart, last batch of the day, and you do nothing to make yourself appealing… Because it’s about pleasing others so they wish to have you.”
Prudence is clever enough to realize he is not actually interested in her, and she’s not interested in him, but somewhere along the way that changes. For both of them. By the time Ben realizes he’s in love with Prudence, he’s afraid to tell her that her brother made him court her because he doesn’t want to hurt her. And Prudence is disappointed in herself because “She’d not allocated time for falling in love, but Mr. Bailey had never seemed to care for schedules, and he’d scrambled the ledger of her heart into utter chaos.”
The character development for both Ben and Prudence is deep and poignant. Both experienced the loss of their parents at a young age, and both were irrevocably changed by that. They are ideally well-matched to help one another heal from that loss. Over the course of the story, Ben comes to understand what’s most important to him, and the best way he can honor his parents’ memory is by putting love first. Meanwhile, with Ben’s help, Prudence comes to understand her worth and see herself differently. Predictably, Prudence finds out about Ben’s initial reluctance to court her and decides she can no longer trust him or believe that he loves her. Most of her anger, though, is reserved for her brother and she calls him the “arse-end of a…a…hedgehog!” Luckily, Ben had already helped Prudence to see herself through his eyes so the revelation does not destroy her as Ben had feared it would. And she still loves him; while he is disconsolate without her. She forgives him, eventually, and we get our HEA.
