The Riddle of the Shipwrecked Spinster - Hardcover

Veryan, Patricia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312269420 ISBN 13: 9780312269425

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2001

Synopsis

Mrs. Regina Stansbury, a woman of high fashion and dwindling fortunes, has just trapped London's most courted bachelor into agreeing to marry her daughter Cordelia. Though young Miss Cordelia Stansbury has admired the handsome and dashing Gervaise Valerian for years, she is mortified by the circumstances of their engagement. Duty bound to obtain her father's consent for this match, Miss Stansbury becomes lost at sea while traveling to meet him in Egypt. But Valerian's hopes for a long and carefree bachelorhood are dashed once again when Miss Stansbury reappears after a year spent shipwrecked on a desert island.

Ignoring the Code of Honour, Valerian rescinds his offer of matrimony. To restore the family name, Piers Cranford, a distant cousin of Valerian's, is bullied into proposing to the disgraced young lady. His offer is rudely rejected, but under pressure from his great-uncle General Lord Nugent Cranford, Piers is forced to pursue Miss Stansbury or risk losing his family manor. Piers is reluctant to marry a haughty girl he barely knows, especially now that he has just met a delightfully intriguing young lady named Mary Westerman...

His worries are compounded when his estate is plagued with a series of disasters. Are these troubles linked to old foes from the Jacobite Rebellion, or could they be the work of a mysterious bidder, intent on bringing down the value of Muse Manor and buying Piers Cranford's beloved family estate?

About this title

About the Author:

Patricia Veryan was born in England and moved to the United States following World War II. The author of several critically acclaimed Georgian and Regency series, including the Sanguinet Saga, she now lives in Kirkland, Washington.

From Publishers Weekly:

Prolific romance-adventure writer Veryan (The Riddle of the Reluctant Rake, etc.) engineers another delightful period escapade, set in Georgian-era England. Two story lines are neatly intertwined. One involves Cordelia Stansbury, who flees the country after her gold-digging mother dupes renowned dandy Gervaise Valerian into agreeing to marry the notoriously homely girl. Fleeing to Egypt, where her father digs up antiquities, Cordelia, is shipwrecked off the Cape of Good Hope and only rescued after she has spent a year in the company of savages, her reputation ruined. The other story line features Piers Cranford, a noble young man who takes on the responsibility of keeping his family estate afloat, leaving his about-to-be-wed twin brother in the dark about the many burdens he shoulders. Veryan embellishes the inevitable romance between Cordelia and Piers with deeds of subterfuge, tales of kidnapping, a high-stakes steeplechase and much identity shifting. The tale is enhanced with bits of historical information in this case concerning the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion during George I's reign, which attempted to restore the Stuarts to the British throne but there is so much to be resolved in the deliciously entangled plot that the historical element only bogs down the tale. Veryan can be depended upon to turn out a creditable romance, and she delivers once again, supplying an uplifting moral first impressions can be deceiving to supplement the frothiness of courtship and affairs of the heart.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312269420
• ISBN 13: 9780312269425
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352