Whisper Always

Author: Rebecca Hagan Lee
Published: October 1999 (Jove)
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 6/10

This isn't my least favorite Rebecca Hagan Lee, but it was probably the most exasperating one I've read. I really enjoyed her Free Fellows League series and most of her Marquess of Templeton series, so I figured I'd give her even older titles a try.

Cristina Fairfax is the jewel of the Season, drawing lots of attention at her coming-out, and a lot of that attention is probably due to the hideous gown her mother made her wear. Apparently, her evil mother made a bet that the Crown Prince of Hapsburg-Lorraine would notice Cristina even if she were dressed in sack cloth. Cristina did catch the eye of Blake Ashford, Earl of Lawrence, though. He found her in a retiring room trying to cut off the satin roses covering the back of her dress and offered to help her remove them to spare her injuring herself. When I read about that charming meeting, I thought that this was going to be a bang-up, awesome romance.

But then Cristina's mother auctions her daughter's hand in marriage (or something close to that) at the equivalent to a swingers' auction, and the Crown Price Rudolf is the winner. Blake manages to rescue Cristina from her ordeal and substitutes a red-headed prostitute in her place. He winds up having Cristina as a guest in his home while she recovers from the beatings she received in her mother's home and the chill she caught while trying to escape from her buyer. I realized that Cristina was sort of suffering from an evil mother like Cinderella.

While under Blake's care, the sparks fly between them and whoops! Cristina's preggers! Now, Blake had a tragic first marriage to an evil woman named Meredith, who committed adultery on their wedding night. Blake decided not to annul the marriage because his wife threatened to lie to the judge, saying that Blake had his way with her before marriage, and they'd have to endure a divorce. Because Blake and his father were heavily involved in politics, the public scandal wouldn't do. Conveniently, Meredith died in a riding accident, without giving birth to another man's child and Blake swore off marriage.

Then one of my more hated romance plot devices sprang up. Blake has the special license and wedding ring in his pocket when he sees that his aunt sent out a betrothal announcement about him and Cristina. He's furious that she jumped the gun like that and said some things about having to view his penance across the breakfast table for the next few decades. Of course, Cristina heard him say that and refused to marry him, and decided to withold the news of her pregnancy from him. Of course, Blake also doesn't mention that he'd already wanted to marry her before all of this hullaballoo started.

Cristina runs off to Vienna under the protection of Prince Rudolf, hinting that she'd become his mistress after giving birth. Months later, Blake finds out about the baby and realizes that he loves Cristina, and chases after her to Vienna. They are reunited. Joy! Happiness! And they're married! More joy! More happiness!

But then in a Jane Eyre moment, when their marriage is being publicly announced, Blake's supposedly-dead wife appears. Meredith really is evil and tries killing the happy couple, which only resulted in Cristina having a stillbirth. In order to take care of the messy business with his wife, Blake sends Cristina off to her father in New York City. He takes their dead son to his family estate in England for a proper burial because he didn't want their child to rest on foreign land and bring him to be with his family. It would've been nice for Blake to tell Cristina that, because it left their relationship hanging.

A year later, she's about to consider marrying an American (who turns out to be a complete asshole) when Blake shows up to claim her yet again. I was getting tired of them at this point. Do you want to be together or not? They're reunited and Blake gets to be all manly when Cristina's trying to reject the American suitor, who calls Cristina a whore as he knows about what happened in Vienna. Too bad Blake pretty much confirms the American's words when he takes Cristina to his hotel room upstairs right after he makes the guy apologize. They're reunited at last. Joy! Happiness! They stay in bed for two days. Joy! Happiness! Preggers again. Uh oh.

Unfortunately, Blake has left YET AGAIN without doing the proper thing, since he has to get an official divorce from Meredity and promises to be back in two months. He doesn't know he's about to become a father again, and gets ambushed by some thugs Meredith hired. The divorce hearing gets delayed while he recovers, but everything goes through all right. When he goes to bring Meredith the news, he gives her the settlement money, letting her believe the packet contains the divorce papers, which he knows she'll burn (because she's crazy). However, he doesn't realize she's crazy enough to throw herself into the fire to retrieve the burning money. I was really happy about that because then he wouldn't have to keep giving Meredith 30,000 pounds per year for her settlement. Plus, I didn't want her doing another Bertha Rochester to Blake and Cristina again.

Cristina travels to London against Blake's wishes because he hasn't returned in two months for her. She gets upset when Blake doesn't show up in response to her message that she's in town, and then finds out about Meredith dying. Yet again, the woman has foiled them because Blake can't marry her for another year because of the period of mourning. But I guess the year of mourning doesn't really apply if you don't care about what society thinks, because Blake FINALLY marries Cristina.

This romance was way too over-the-top for me. They're together unofficially, then together officially, then not together, then together unofficially, then officially, then not together, and then together unofficially and finally officially! They're in England, then Vienna, then in America! Decide if you're together and stop moving around so much! Too frustrating! I want to be relaxed and cozy when I read my historical romances!