Georgian romancer Veryan launches another handsome, nobly jumpy nob who finds a delightful (if considered unsuitable) love, and--with a little help from his friends who've appeared in Times Fool (1991) and Had We Never Loved (1992)--confounds the latest plot of the nefarious League of Jewelled Men. Poor pretty widow Ruth Allington, poverty-stricken daughter of a famous painter and sister of a sea captain branded as a traitor, is fairly desperate. But she perceives help from an odd quarter and moves to a cottage on the estate of Lac Brillant. Its owner, gentlemanly Sir Brian, reluctantly hires her to restore a chapel fresco, despite the fierce objections of his son, glowering Gordon Chandler. Scattering little white lies (Ruth keeps hidden her familial connections and hides the twin nephews she's raising), she restores beautifully. Gordon warms but is still below the boiling point; he's engaged to a gorgeous nasty. Meanwhile, the Jewelled Men are planning to collect another estate to undermine the Realm, and it all has to do with an intentional shipwreck, Ruth's lost brother, and fraudulent cargo. The twins and Ruth save the day as do Gordon's friends--Lt. Morris and ``the Manderin'' August Falcon (the most interesting friend and probably on ice until the last Jewelled Men volume). It all ends with a bang-up storm and gunfire. On automatic pilot--but an enjoyable, lighthearted romantic series.
