When Lady Meriden's eldest stepson and husband die within days of each other, the estate passes to the second stepson. No one has seen him in years, yet he inherits everything, including his father's gambling debts and guardianship of his seven siblings. Jane Ash rushes to her aunt's aid. Months go by before the new baron comes, and Jane is left to cope with her ailing, self-dramatizing aunt and bewildered cousins, all of whom have problems. Lady Meriden alternately spoils and neglects them. Julian, the heir, has his own problems and wants nothing less than to play the heavy parent to his unknown siblings. When he does come, will he and Jane form an unexpected alliance that leads to romance?

Simonson is one of the best of the current Regency novelists. Here her heroine, Emily, having lost both husband and baby daughter, offers to take in other children to raise with her own son, Matt. Captain Richard Falk deposits his infant son and young daughter with her before returning to fight Napoleon. Emily falls in love with his children and, during their correspondence, with him. However, Falk, illegitimate son of a duchess, is in danger from his mother's family, who see him as a threat to the dukedom. With a little help from friends, all ends well. The characters are well drawn and appealing, and if the plot seems a bit preposterous, the reader is having too much fun to worry about it.Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Coll. Lib., Davenport, Ia.