From the first she finds, to her patriotic dismay, that it is impossible for her not to like the British whom she meets even if she despises British military arrogance. She’s smart and as events and circumstances conspire to give her a quick lesson in real life, she spreads her intellectual and emotional wings and flies. Page starts out from her home as a sheltered young miss – how can she be otherwise – but she is by no means a stupid country bumpkin.

But Fate isn’t through with their travel plans yet and takes them on a trip to London before a devastating revelation sends Page back to America to witness the British burn Washington before Fate finally reunites the lovers and leaves them in peace. What he can’t foresee is the series of naval battles and an overeager American privateer captain that will land them in Bermuda, on a trip across the Atlantic raiding British convoys, and separated in France and Spain for the short duration left of the Peninsular War. Conscious of his debt to Page for saving his life and appalled that she is taken as a POW, he pledges to safely restore Page to her family. Jocelyn Edward Trevor, fourth Viscount Hazard is the man she can’t force herself to hate. But as Duncan MacDougall, her father’s overseer, remarks, “from her earliest days she had possessed an untidy knack of attracting misfortune to herself as well as any unwary and innocent bystander.” This knack, through a series of spiraling events lands Page, MacDougall and the two rescued men aboard a British warship where she learns that, “a declaration of war may be binding upon men sworn to uphold it, but it cannot force them to hatred.” Obeying an impulse, Page hurries onto the scene and manages to pacify the crowd and get the two men onto her father’s sloop for the trip home up the Bay.

On a pleasant day trip to Annapolis to buy a bonnet which would not be a hand me down from three older sisters, Page discovers a man and his gentleman’s gentleman about to be hanged by a mob as English spies. But in her Maryland home such unpleasantness is a distant thing for Catherine Page Bradley. British naval ships harry any American vessel available and sail boldly up the Chesapeake. It is 1813 and America and England are once again at war. Her descriptive style is a pleasure to read as it beautifully unfolds the story and the research is meticulous without being fussy.

The secondary characters are not just space fillers but are important in their own right and help advance the plot. The main characters are well drawn and act believably for their time. When her name was first mentioned to me, I thought, “Jan Cox Speas – who”? Now I think, “Jan Cox Speas – great author”! Everything about her writing is a joy. A great book is a always a welcome find but one recommended by a friend is even better.

My Lord Monleigh by Jan Cox Speas