MORE THAN A MISTRESS

MORE THAN A MISTRESS - BY MARY BALOGH

"More than a Mistress" is a story about the romance of Jane and Jocelyn. Jane and Jocelyn have a rather inauspicious beginning; he has been challenged to a duel over another man's wife, she interrupts the duel and is somehow blamed by everyone for getting him shot.

When Jane arrives to her new job as a milliner's (that's a hat maker) assistant and delivers her tale about being delayed by a dueling Duke (Jocelyn is a Duke) she is laughed out of the shop and told she can have her job back if she gets a signed note from the Duke verifying her "story". Outraged at losing her job and being laughed at, Jane decides she will have that note and somehow finds herself not only in the Duke's mansion, but in his bedroom assisting the doctor in removing the bullet from his leg. Naturally, Jane is then employed as the Duke's nurse during his convalescence.

In between making verbal barbs at each other for the two weeks he spends recovering, the two being taking notice of each other in other ways. Their growing attraction culminates with their first kiss one night when, conveniently, neither could sleep. When she walks in on him playing the piano one night, he is initially angry but his anger leads to passion as they share their first kiss, in which every part of Jane's body, "sizzled with awareness and ached with desire."

Since Jocelyn is not without his principles he can let things go no farther between them while she is living in his house as a servant. He therefore suggests that maybe she would consider becoming his mistress, which is when the novel begins to heat up.

Despite being a "Lady" Jane consents to this because she is a bit of a fugitive; having defended herself from the unwanted advances of a cousin she has fled from home, taking with her a bracelet that had belonged to her mother - her Uncle has since let it be (falsely) believed that she has killed her cousin and robbed the family.

And so she becomes Jocelyn's mistress and they are both a bit overwhelmed, and embarrassed, by the passion and feelings that arise in them during their first, chapter long love scene. Their relationship is a constant step forward and then one back; she is confused by his coldness after a moment of passion, he begins to open up to her, he thinks she is ashamed to be his mistress when she is really unwilling to go out because Bow Street Runners are searching for her. The indulge together in their love of culture; she embroiders while he reads her Jane Austen, she reads while he plays the piano, she sings for him, until she does become more than a mistress.

But of course the truth about her past had to be revealed eventually and when it does Jocelyn is horrified that she has not only deceived him but that in doing so he made a Lady his mistress (which is apparently a horrible thing to do). And of course the revelation leads straight to the alter, well with, I have to say, an unexpected detour or two.

(There is also a subplot involving Jocelyn's brother, the lady the duel was fought over, and her brother's repeated attempts at getting "satisfaction" but I'll leave that an easy to forget subplot.)