Series:
Lyon's Den (Book 62)
A lowly servant who may be French nobility. A scarred
English lieutenant who hates all French. Can these two find love in the Lyon's
Den?
Marie Cadough is a French servant who's learned to hide
who she is. Sent to England as a child to flee the French Revolution, she and
her uncle escaped suspicion by working as servants in a London household. But
when she is dismissed at the hands of an unreasonable mistress, her uncle finds
them new positions in the household of Mrs. Dove-Lyon, the Black Widow of
Whitehall.
Lieutenant Samuel Gage is scarred by war. Having lost his
closest friend to a duel and seen hearts broken by heartless Frenchwomen, he
has developed an irrational dislike of all things French. But when he suffers
painful memories from loud music at the Lyon's Den, a kind servant takes pity
on him. He never expected her to be French.
Marie wants to do well at her new employer's, so when
Mrs. Dove-Lyon asks her to pose as a lady and act as a French-speaking
companion to a visiting Frenchwoman, Marie agrees. She never expected to fall
for an Englishman in the process.
But not all is well. The other servants are jealous of
Marie's rise to success, and Marie's new friends are keen to discover her
origins. A mutual attraction begins to simmer between Samuel and Marie, but
their different backgrounds and the stiff social hierarchy of Regency London
pose formidable barriers to their blossoming love.
He is the third son of a baronet—she is a maidservant in
a gambling den. Their worlds could not be more different. But as their desire
increases, so does the danger, for scheming servants and Marie's old employers
may ruin all their hopes and dreams for the future.
Will Marie and Samuel find love or remain worlds apart?
Good book. It opens with a prologue that tells of how
Marie came to leave France for England as a small child, then moves on to the
current day. She and her "uncle" work as servants for a London
family. Unfortunately, the lady of the house is not nice and fires Marie. Her
uncle finds them new positions working for Mrs. Dove-Lyon at the Lyon's Den.
Marie, who has a flair for cooking, gets off on the wrong
foot with the other servants when she comments on the soup. Their jealousy
increases when Mrs. Dove-Lyon asks Marie to pose as a lady to keep a
French-speaking visitor company.
Marie also aids a soldier who suffers from a flashback
while at the Lyon's Den. Samuel was badly injured during the war, and combined
with other unhappy experiences, he dislikes anything French. He doesn't realize
she is French and is drawn to her kindness. He returns to Lyon's Den, looking for
her several times, not knowing she is a servant.
I enjoyed watching the relationship between Marie and
Samuel develop. He meets her again while she plays her companion role, and he
continues to be fascinated by her. I loved seeing them together. Samuel is
kind, honorable, and smitten with Marie. Marie is equally smitten with him but
knows that anything between them is impossible because of their class
differences. However, Samuel is persistent and hopes for the outcome he wants.
Life isn't easy for Marie. While she enjoys her time
spent with Mrs. Martin, she is continually harassed by some of her fellow servants.
Items go missing and Marie is blamed, putting her job in jeopardy. She enjoys
Mrs. Martin's friendship but fears what might happen when she reveals her
servant status. The ups and downs of the last third of the book kept me turning
the pages to the end. I loved the twist at the end.
I enjoy the variety of characters in the Lyon's Den
series. It is a welcome change to read about ordinary people whose lives are
touched by Mrs. Dove-Lyon and not just the members of the nobility.
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