**NOT a rewriting of ‘Her Grace’. It is a new story with the characters in that book, but in different situations and perspectives.**

This book looks at how everything would be different if the Duke of Hertfordshire was not a bad person, if he was in fact, a very good and honourable man.

When he is still the Marquess of Hertford, Lord Archibald Winston Chamberlain makes an ill-advised agreement with his father, Lord Winston Chamberlain, the current Duke of Hertfordshire.

When the Marquess is in his twenties, he is informed that his father will arrange a match for him. He appeals to the Duke and a compromise is reached. Lord Hertford reaches the milestone birthday and is still single. As much as he wanted a love match like his parents and sister, he gave his word of honour, and therefore marries the woman his father selects.

Meanwhile Thomas Bennet has inherited the estate, Longbourn, which he never wanted to own. He was much happier in the world of academia, working towards a professorship at Cambridge.

A year or two before Bennet takes over as master of Longbourn, Fanny Gardiner, already with child, elopes with an officer. Without a settlement, the man claims, and then proceeds to squander her dowry. Fanny delivers a girl, named Jane, and within a year of her birth, the husband is shot when caught with another man’s wife.

A practically penniless Fanny returns to Meryton where, thanks to her dishonourable behaviour and the effect on his beloved wife, her father wants nothing to do with her. Hattie and Frank Phillips take her in reluctantly, only because of their niece.

As the story proceeds, we see how the lives of the above mentioned characters, as well as others who were not alluded to, intersect and what the results are.

There is some angst, but only when it serves the story, and it doesn’t take over the themes of the tale.

If you enjoyed ‘Her Grace’ then you will enjoy this one as well.