Rating: 
Summary: She chose the wrong man.
Review: Well, I must say, this is not one of MJP's better books. The hero is a jerk throughout the majority of the book, and when he finally discovers how wrong and stupid he had been, it is a little too late for me. Thirteen years too late. As a 21-year-old boy, Rafe falls in love with the beautiful Margot. Eyes meeting across the room, two hearts beating as one, etc. Then a man of his crowd, (Oliver), someone he barely knows, someone he characterizes as an "oaf" boasts that she had sex with him. Never mind that Oliver is not a friend of Rafe's. Never mind that Rafe is supposedly sooo much in love with Margot. He just assumes that this woman he loves is a ... (After all, Oliver went to Eton! He is of the nobility! Such a man would never lie! She must be a harlot!) So Our Hero rushes off to accuse the woman he loves of being a ..., she throws his ring back in his face, and leaves. Thirteen years later. Rafe has turned into a rake who beds every woman he can get his hands on, even if they are married. (But that is all right, he had a disappointment in love, so he can be as sluttish as he wants) Going to Paris to work for England (Although what qualifications does he have, besides jumping the bones of every wife in the foreign service is never made clear) He meets... you guessed it. Margot. Well, he immediately has two goals: to prove her a spy and a traitor, and to get her into bed. She is, after all, a ... She has been living on her own for years in France. One thing that disturbs me about this "tormented" hero is the fact that he is so bitter and angry about something that happened THIRTEEN years ago. His malevolence towards Margot is nauseating. Even if he had good reason to think the worst of her (he didn't), he should have gotten over it after more than a decade. And how does he finally discover the truth? Another man reveals to him that good 'ole Oliver is a traitor. ONLY THEN does he realize that a nobleman can (gasp!) lie. I mean, it's hysterical. Rafe lives in a society of hypocricy, casual adultery, and promiscuity, but can't get it through his head that a man who has a title could LIE. ("Now, really. Oliver is a boor and an oaf, and he beats his wife, but do you expect me to believe that he would lie about a beautiful woman having sex with him?") No, it is much more logical that your fiance is a harlot than to believe that a man would lie about his conquests. The fact that he convicted her on nothing more than the "confession" of a man that he KNOWS is a boor and an oaf (HIS description of the "honest gentleman" who Margot supposedly cuckolded him with) is bad enough. The fact that he uses his long-ago heartbreak as an excuse to behave like a ... himself is the worst part. I have to tell you, the scene where he discovers exactly what the consequences of his actions were (and they were awful) is the best part for me. While he was cavorting with married women, Margot was... well, read the book. Rafe did not grovel nearly enough for me to forgive him.
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