Emerald

Author: Lauren Royal
Published: October 10, 2000 (Signet)
Category: Historical Romance
Rating: 7/10

In Emerald, we follow the romance of Jason Chase, Marquess of Cainewood, and eldest of the Chase family. He's always been the responsible one, acting as father to his three siblings since their parents died when he was sixteen.

The story begins with Jason pursuing two criminals, the Gothard brothers, who've severely injured a little girl in one of his villages. He feels responsible for little Mary and wants to bring the brothers to face justice. In his first encounter with the brothers, he fights a duel with Geoffrey Gothard (the brains of the operation), and when he's about to overcome Gothard, the scoundrel pulls an innocent bystander from the crowd to use as a human shield. Jason is unable to stop his charge in time and accidentally kills the man, giving Gothard time to shoot him in the shoulder. Stubbornly, Jason leaves his sickbed after two weeks, unable to escape the nightmares of little Mary and the innocent man, and continues his search. While following a lead, he discovers a woman dressed as a man confronting the brothers inside an inn. He thinks it's Emerald McCallum, the female Scottish bountyhunter responding to the reward he's offering for the Gothards' capture.

However, it's really Caithren Leslie of Scotland. Her father passed away recently and she stands to inherit all of Leslie, if she marries within a year. If she does not comply with the will, the estate will go to her irresponsible brother Adam instead. Cait knows that Adam is not suited to care for the land and the people, but she has no desire to marry and have her independence taken away from her. The solicitor suggests that Cait find Adam, who's currently visiting with friends and about to attend a wedding in London, and have him waive any rights to the estate in exchange for a living allowance. After tricking her hired traveling companion to leave her when they've reached England, she overhears the Gothards' plot. Geoffrey is planning on killing their brother, Lord Scarborough, and then Walter would inherit. She later confronts the men at the inn, and Jason rushes in to apprehend the Gothards.

Cait gets a little injured in the scuffle, landing on Jason's sword, and the Gothards get away while Jason worries about yet another person he's responsible for. While tending her wounds, he realizes this must be Emerald McCallum, what with her confronting dangerous men alone and the emerald pendant she wears. He also does not believe Cait's claims that she is not Emerald and she's just trying to find her brother.

And so we spend most of the book with Cait and Jason traveling to London, each ragging on the other for being English/Scottish. Jason eventually realizes that Cait is actually telling the truth about her identity, but it takes him long enough to get around to it. I was starting to think he was a bit thick.

Blah blah blah, they get the bad guys in the end and Jason meets the real Emerald McCallum and gives her twice the reward amount he posted because he didn't want her leaving her two children again for this dangerous profession.

What I didn't like about this book? Cait's Scottish accent is painstakingly visible in all her dialogue and it got really annoying. I'm used to crones using "ye," but Cait always said "you" that way and all the "I dinna ken" for "I didn't know" was grating to me and kept me from enjoying the story. The other thing I didn't like? Jason's obstinance in believing that Cait was Emerald. He refused to listen to everything she said about why she was traveling to London, and a couple hundred pages later, he looked like a fool. I didn't think that was in his character make-up to be so narrow minded.

But I love the way Royal has her books set up. I got to see my favorite characters, Colin and Amy, again, enjoying their happy ending granted in Amethyst. It's so easy for me to read a bunch of Royal's books at the same time because I've already met and fallen in love with the characters in previous books. It's like reading a really long book instead of a trilogy, and incidentally, Ford Chase's story is told in Violet, the first book in Royal's second trilogy. Everything links together brilliantly.