Series:
Lyon's Den (Book 85)
She's pretending to be respectable.
Tricking her way into a gentlemen's card game isn't
Belinda Bellamy's cleverest idea. Especially not when it's at the Lyon's Den,
and one of the gamblers is a theatre owner who knows an actress when he sees
one. Unmasked, Belinda's ploy to raise enough money for Mrs Dove-Lyon's
services backfires badly. Instead of hiring the best matchmaker in London,
Belinda is blackmailed into becoming her employee, and her hope of escaping her
tragic past through marriage is shattered.
He's pretending not to be . . .
The man who's ruined Belinda's plan is the rich but
ruthless Piers Darvill, a notorious rake whose secret suffering is concealed by
a heart of steel. He's on the hunt for the woman hiding his young son. He'll
use any means to find her, including a young street urchin called Tom and
Roland Chetwynd, Belinda Bellamy's hapless chaperone and confidant.
Seeing Darvill as her nemesis, Belinda is determined to
rescue Tom and free Roland from his obligations. But she has totally
misunderstood Piers Darvill and ends up exiled and disgraced. Now he's the only
one who can restore her to Society, but his help comes at a price: she must
become his fake fiancée.
Will their false betrothal fool anyone? And what if it
becomes more than an act? Belinda's scapegrace past could resurface, and
Darvill will lose his last chance of finding his missing son.
This is a follow-on book to
The Lyon and the Lamb.
Belinda is the younger sister of the heroine of that book. She is determined to
no longer be a burden to her sister and believes that Mrs. Dove-Lyon can help
find her a husband. All she needs is the money to pay the fee. Rather than ask
her sister for it, Belinda dresses like a man and talks her sister's
brother-in-law into taking her to play at the Lyon's Den. She does well until
one of the other players spots the deception and rats her out. Instead of
winning the funds needed to hire her, Belinda ends up working in Mrs.
Dove-Lyon's kitchen.
Piers is a wealthy theater owner and mine owner with a
rakish reputation. His decision to expose the imposter in the card game was
simply because he considered it cheating, and moved on. The majority of his
focus is on his search for his former mistress and the son she bore him.
This isn't the usual matchmaking effort by the Black
Widow. Here she throws them together and lets them work it out on their own. They
begin as antagonists, especially Belinda, who holds a grudge against him for
exposing her disguise. Her attitude leads her to stick her nose in where it doesn't
belong, mistakenly interfering with Piers's search. Piers is understandably
angry and frustrated, but also inexplicably drawn to her. When she joins him on
his search, attempting to make amends, she realizes they have more in common
than she expected. Traveling together intensifies their mutual attraction,
leading to a reputation-protecting fake engagement.
I liked Piers. He wants to find his son and do the right
thing by marrying the mother. I ached for him as more of his story unfolded. His
rakish reputation is more talk than substance as he uses it for protection
against matchmaking mamas. Despite his reputation, he has a protective streak
that comes out as he spends more time with Belinda. I had a harder time warming
up to Belinda. For a significant part of the book, she appeared self-centered,
focused on her own wants, and bemoaned the consequences of her actions. She
redeemed herself somewhat by the end of the book, but lost some points with her
demands about his business.
The emotional ending brought the answers to questions,
enabling Piers and Belinda to move ahead with their relationship. I liked the
epilogue, with a fun little twist arranged by Mrs. Dove-Lyon.
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