"Only pride stopped her from breaking down. Pride and anger towards her closest friend. It seemed Jack didn't suspect her father's suicide... She would not burden Jack with the knowledge, she could not be so cruel, but neither could she forget he had been unwittingly instrumental in her father's death. This man who she looked up to as a brother, the man she had considered near perfect, had flaws after all".
When Only Pride Remains by Natalie Kleiman is an utterly charming Regency romance, so evocative of time and place.
When Major Angus Fairham returns home from the Napoleonic wars, his daughter Prudence is happy to have him back at Fairham Manor. Major has neglected his estate, spending more time away from home than at the manor. The estate needs means and organisational skills to reach its full potential.
Captain Jack Staveley is a longtime friend to both Angus and his daughter. Having inherited a sizeable fortune from his grandfather, he is estranged from his father and older brother. Angus is a father figure to him.
Jack enjoys visiting the Fairhams, and is very fond of Prudence. They are good friends, and have few secrets from each other.
Pru asks Jack to talk to her father about his gambling habits, which are a great concern, "you must know our circumstances almost as well as we do, that with my father's predilection for gaming, the funds available to use are irregular to say the least". Angus is addicted to gammbling, for him it's more than the game alone.
Jack promises to help to try to curb her father's tendency to play above his means.
One evening, when both men have had too much to drink, Angus challenges Jack to a game of cards, staking his manor house, and loses everything. Jack is too inebriated to think straight, and promises himself to return the promissory note the next morning. Only the next morning the tragedy strikes. Angus takes his own life, thinking his daughter would go along far better without him.
Jack is not aware of how the Major died, and believes it was an accident. Pru doesn't disabuse his notions.
Pru's future is quite secure, as she has her late mother's legacy. However, her childhood home is lost on the turn of a card. Jack tries to restore the manor to Prudence, but her pride is in the way of accepting it back. She decides to stay with her aunt's family at Bath and distance herself from her old friend.
"At four and twenty years old she remained single, and her aunt had all but given up hope of a match for her". While enjoying her aunt's company and everything Bath has to offer, she also finds it lacking in stimulation and hopes to build her own future elsewhere, on her own terms. She wants to set up an establishment of her own
Jack accepts the fact that he's now the owner of the Fairham Manor. "A man of action, he had realised since that he needed a purpose in life if he was to find happiness. That purposes, he had decided, would be to restore Fairham to its former glory and in that way pay homage to the major. But would it be enough?"
As time passes, Pru's anger subsides, and she begins to take interest in the restoration and re-organisation plans of the manor. Jack is building a small hospital on the grounds of the estate which will provide refuge for wounded and disabled soldiers. For some of them, their physical and mental pain will always be part of their lives, but rehabilitation is a possibility for many.
The title of the book is very fitting, though it's not just about pride, but also about forgiveness. How do you forgive someone whose foolish actions have caused the death of your parent?
Will Pru be able to put aside her pride and forgive Jack? Will the worthy cause re-unite the old friends and allow them to reveal their true feelings for each other?
When Only Pride Remains is an elegantly woven tale, that both entertains and educates. The plotline, dedicated to the rehabilitation of the soldiers who are left on their own to live with their physical and mental wounds is thoughtful and meaningful. And the love story provides a much-needed dose of escapism.
While reading more on the subject of rehabilitation of the soldiers in the Regency/Victorian times, I've come across a fascinating paper called Disability in time and place by Simon Jarrett. If you find this topic interesting, I recommend reading this paper.
This post is part of the blog tour for When Only Pride Remains.
Many thanks to Natalie Kleinman and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!
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Author Bio
Natalie’s passion for reading became a compulsion to write when she attended a ten-week course in creative writing some sixteen or so years ago. She takes delight in creating short stories of which more than forty have been published, but it was her lifelong love of Regency romance that led her to turn from contemporary romantic fiction to try her hand at her favourite genre.
Raised on a diet of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, she is never happier than when immersed in an age of etiquette and manners, fashion and intrigue, all combined into a romping good tale. She lives on the London/Kent border, close to the capital’s plethora of museums and galleries which she uses for research as well as pleasure. A perfect day though is when she heads out of town to enjoy lunch by a pub on the river, any river, in company with her husband and friends.
Natalie is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, the Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.
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