Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare
Any Duchess Will Do by Tessa Dare Series: Spindle Cove Series Book #4
on May 28, 2013
Genres: Fiction / Romance / General, Fiction / Romance / Historical / Victorian
Pages: 384
Goodreads
What's a duke to do, when the girl who's perfectly wrong becomes the woman he can't live without?
Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, has no desire to wed this season—or any season—but his diabolical mother abducts him to "Spinster Cove" and insists he select a bride from the ladies in residence. Griff decides to teach her a lesson that will end the marriage debate forever. He chooses the serving girl.
Overworked and struggling, Pauline Simms doesn't dream about dukes. All she wants is to hang up her barmaid apron and open a bookshop. That dream becomes a possibility when an arrogant, sinfully attractive duke offers her a small fortune for a week's employment. Her duties are simple: submit to his mother's "duchess training"… and fail miserably.
But in London, Pauline isn't a miserable failure. She's a brave, quick-witted, beguiling failure—a woman who ignites Griff's desire and soothes the darkness in his soul. Keeping Pauline by his side won't be easy. Even if Society could accept a serving girl duchess—can a roguish duke convince a serving girl to trust him with her heart?
Any Duchess Will Do is book four in the Spindle Cove series. I liked this book, but I struggled with the premise. The Duke of Halford who is mentioned in book three as a thoroughly debauched and dissolute individual, comes to Spindle Cove with his pushy mama. His mama the Duchess wants him to marry so Griff – the Duke – at his mama’s demand, picks one of the first women that he sees – a lowly barmaid named Pauline Simms to romance and be his future duchess. He believes that there is no way his mother can shape Pauline into duchess material within a week and so he promises Pauline a huge sum of money to fail in the hopes that his mother will leave him alone. So the whole commoner marrying a Duke thing is really hard to swallow. And it is a point of contention that runs throughout the storyline. Of course there was a true story of Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh found in The National Trust:
At the age of 71, the bachelor life finally lost its appeal. Having been charmed by the sound of singing coming from the dairy, he one day told the maid he found within, a 20-year-old Mary Ann Bullock, that he wanted to marry her.
She was speechless and he told her ‘Don’t answer me now. But if you will have me, cut a slice out of the leg of mutton that is coming up for my dinner today’. When the mutton arrived, the slice was cut. The proposal may have been unconventional, but the marriage lasted nearly 20 years until Sir Harry’s death in 1846, aged 90.
The New Lady Featherstonhaugh:
Mary Ann may have come to Uppark as a dairy maid but by 1846 she found herself owner of a 5,000-acre estate, employing 203 laborers (as of 1851) and living in the grandest surroundings. The new Lady Fetherstonhaugh and her sister, Frances, resisted the temptation to restyle Uppark to suit the incoming Victorian tastes.
So even though it was very uncommon, even a dairy maid found her happiness with a Lord.
But in this book, Halford gets more than he bargained for in Pauline. He finds himself being drawn to her throughout the week. But Griff harbors a secret that once known has the power to destroy his growing love for Pauline and all he holds dear. Once I did my research and found the premise of a dairy maid marrying a Lord actually a factual occurrence, I decided to give a big thumbs up to this story.
