Always a Lady

Author: Rebecca Hagan Lee
Published: September 2002 (Berkley)
Category: Historical Romance
Series: Marquess of Templeston Heirs #3
Quote of Choice: "And if you get fat eating cake, no prince will marry you."

This book comes in a close second to Once a Mistress in terms of how much I loved it.

Kit, the son of George Ramsey (the guy who started the locket thing), was raised by his adoptive mother Kathryn and his older half brother Drew (They were the focus of Once a Mistress). The book starts with a flashback to when Kit, 8 years old, vacationed in Ireland with Drew and Kathryn. He met a little girl, 6 years old, near the ruins of old Telamor Castle. She was an orphan in care of the nuns at the convent nearby. Adorably, the girl tells Kit about how she wants a handsome prince to rescue her, marry her, and take her to live in Telamor Castle (the new one). Kit offers to become her fiance, even though he's just an earl. The girl accepts, and the two part ways with her only learning his nickname, Kit. This is like the movie Serendipity, but with worse odds against the two ever coming together.

Upon reaching his majority, Kit found out that he has inherited an Irish title through his mother, the previously unidentified mistress. Incidentally, the title comes with Telamor Castle, that little girl's castle... and the little girl, who is now a young woman. It turns out that the previous Earl of Kilgannon was the guardian to Lady Siobahn Shaughnessy, mother of Mariah Shaugnessy.

So, Kit goes off to Ireland with his two best friends, Dalton and Ash, to claim his inheritance. I was was of him bringing his two bachelor friends with him, fearing a lot of encouragement for less gentlemanly behavior. But, in a rare thing for a lot of romances, the bachelor friends are strangely intuitive about the beginnings of Kit and Mariah's relationship and help Kit along, even helping with the protection of Mariah's reputation. In fact, Mariah realized that Kit was the man she was waiting for when Dalton called Kit by his nickname.

In the weeks that follow their meeting as guardian and ward, Mariah is taught the social graces, as her mother's last wishes were for Mariah to have a London season. During these lessons, Mariah and Kit fall more and more in love. I'm always a little upset when romance novels take too long for the man to realize that he's found his future wife. In this novel, Kit finds out very early that Mariah is his little girl in the tower. He's never forgotten her, and tells her so a couple weeks after her identity as the little girl was revealed.

Besides being a sweet romance, there's some intrigue as well. It turns out Mariah's mother was murdered, and that murderer is still waiting to finish his dastardly deeds.

I loved this book. It's witty and funny, and I got to hear more about Drew and Kathryn, meeting their daughters, and perhaps the beginnings of another romance between Dalton and the eldest daughter. It's been 4 years since this book has been published, so I doubt Lee's next book is about them, but one can hope!