Recent Reads - The Black Moth

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The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer - Seven years ago, in an anxious moment, Richard Carstares cheated at cards and was caught. But his older brother Jack knew that the disgrace would ruin Richard's hopes of marrying Lady Lavinia so he took the blame for himself and then went to France and lived under an assumed name, effectively giving up his rightful title of Earl of Wyncham. Upon Jack's return to England, he uses a different name, and he also indulges in a little robbery disguised as a highwayman.

Even as a highwayman, Jack's honorable instincts come through when he comes across an attempted kidnapping and rescues the young lady, Diana. Jack recognizes the villain too, and it's none other than the Duke of Andover, Lavinia's brother. Jack is badly injured during the rescue, and Diana and her aunt take him back to their home to nurse him. Of course Jack and Diana fall in love, but Jack cannot tell her his true identity because he doesn't wish the disgrace attached to him to touch Diana.

The story also follows younger brother Richard and his often troubled relationship with his wife Lavinia. Richard is haunted by guilt that he allowed Jack to take the blame for the cheating and that he hadn't the courage to own his own mistake. But Lavinia wants a lavish lifestyle and busy social life, and she refuses to allow Richard to admit that he was the cheater.

Eventually Richard finds out that his brother is back in England, and decides that he must admit his own guilt and clear Jack's name, especially when he hears that Jack will not marry Diana as long as he bears the black mark. But will it cost Richard his own marriage? Lavinia declares that she will not stay with Richard is he is to be shut out of society, and an old flame of hers is eagerly anticipating that she will elope with him in order to escape the disgrace.

I felt that this was rather a slow start, and it took me some time to get the characters straight and figure out which ones were the leads and the sympathetic characters, and which were the villains. However, several chapters in, by the time Jack had stepped in to save Diana from being kidnapped, I was drawn in and rooting for Richard to do the right thing and for Jack to find his true love. So it turned out to be another delightful historical from an author who has never disappointed.

By the same author: These Old Shades, Regency Buck, The Unknown Ajax, Powder and Patch, Beauvallet, Lady of Quality, The Toll-Gate

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