Lady Liza is a beautiful widow in her mid-30s, liberated now from a forced marriage to a much older man. He had treated her pretty well and left her with a boatload of cash; there had been no children of this match. In London she is accepted in society and now enjoying her freedom to have some fun and take lovers. Her current lover is Lt Christopher Lamb, who is 22. For Liza the affair is for sex and pleasure only, but Lamb believes he is in love with her, his perfect goddess.
Interrupting this happy interlude, Liza's niece Lady Disanne comes to her; her father, Liza's stepbrother, the one who had sold her into an unwanted marriage, is about to do the same thing to her. Disanne remembers Liza as the aunt who sent her wonderful birthday presents (someone on Liza's staff took care of that) and knows nothing about Liza's sexual activities. Disanne is being threatened with marriage to Mr. Convers, an "old" man to her - a man Liza had known before she was married.
This story is presented as a light comedy and the author had to stretch the psychology quite a bit to achieve this. Lt. Lamb is quite willing to introduce Liza to his mom and sisters even though he's sleeping with her. Convers had always wanted Liza, and now that her marriage is over, she is theoretically available, but he never seems disturbed that she's sleeping with another guy, let alone one young enough to be her son. (At the end he does manage to say that she can't have any more lovers after they're married.) Liza's servants know nothing of her bedroom nights with Lamb, except one or two very loyal ones who don't approve, mostly on the grounds of "you'll get caught." Nobody worries even a little bit about getting pregnant.
It's a short, fast moving timepasser that owes quite a bit to Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle in the mismatch stuff, but in the end didn't make much sense to me.
Interrupting this happy interlude, Liza's niece Lady Disanne comes to her; her father, Liza's stepbrother, the one who had sold her into an unwanted marriage, is about to do the same thing to her. Disanne remembers Liza as the aunt who sent her wonderful birthday presents (someone on Liza's staff took care of that) and knows nothing about Liza's sexual activities. Disanne is being threatened with marriage to Mr. Convers, an "old" man to her - a man Liza had known before she was married.
This story is presented as a light comedy and the author had to stretch the psychology quite a bit to achieve this. Lt. Lamb is quite willing to introduce Liza to his mom and sisters even though he's sleeping with her. Convers had always wanted Liza, and now that her marriage is over, she is theoretically available, but he never seems disturbed that she's sleeping with another guy, let alone one young enough to be her son. (At the end he does manage to say that she can't have any more lovers after they're married.) Liza's servants know nothing of her bedroom nights with Lamb, except one or two very loyal ones who don't approve, mostly on the grounds of "you'll get caught." Nobody worries even a little bit about getting pregnant.
It's a short, fast moving timepasser that owes quite a bit to Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle in the mismatch stuff, but in the end didn't make much sense to me.
