My Lady's Trust (Harlequin Historical) [Paperback]

According to the earl's thinking, the widowed Laura is the perfect choice for a mistress. Being known as his mistress can only enhance her standing with the ton and would certainly not prevent her from marrying respectably after the conclusion of their liaison. Although he cannot imagine ever letting her go to another man....

Inevitably, his interference endangers the very woman he sought to protect, and it is only then that he realizes his true feelings and his unworthiness to be her husband.

As much as I enjoyed this book--couldn't put it down, in fact--I was disgusted at the earl's vision of bringing her to society's notice as his acknowledged mistress. Trust a man to rationalize his lust by persuading himself it's in his victim's best interests! From what I've read of this period--and I've read extensively--such women were part of the demimonde and NOT considered respectable at all, even if some of their activities were overlooked. And such a dimwit to have guessed so much of her secret and not realize his actions were putting her in extreme danger!

Still, even considering the hero's shortcomings, this is an enjoyable, very engrossing story that I guarantee any reader will not soon forget.

In "My Lady's Trust" we have a heroine, Laura Martin, who possesses a dark secret, is on the run and who is living in hiding in a small secluded village where she makes her living as the village's herb woman. A hunting accident involving the Earl of Beaulieu's younger brother throws Laura into this very wealthy nobleman's path. And while she would like nothing better than to have nothing to do with the earl and his family, esp given that she is very much afraid that he will discover her true identity and so bring danger back into her life, she cannot ignore his plea to help his brother. Meanwhile the earl is quite taken with the enigmatic and beautiful Laura Martin, who is so reclusive and so wary. Exactly what is so attractive and charming a woman doing hiding in such a secluded area? He resolves to discover her secrets, even as he resolves to breach her defenses and contract a brief liaison with her. But the more he gets to know Laura the more he appreciates her beauty, with and intelligence, and soon falls rather hard for her. But can this relationship go anywhere esp given that Laura still refuses to trust him or share her secrets with him?

Here's what irked with about this novel: why is it that no matter how urbane and sophisticated and intelligent the hero is, he always seems (at first) not to take into account what his determined pursuit of the young woman in question would do to the woman's reputation? I keep coming across this lack of concern over and over again in many romance novels, and I must say it usually makes me dislike the hero immensely -- I'm one of the unfashionable few who prefers that hero be thoughtful and kind instead of masterful and spoilt. The only thing that seems to matter to the hero is his desire for the heroine. Given that at this point he has no desire to marry her, and only has a temporary liaison in mind, his callous disregard for her reputation really irks. In "My Lady's Trust" both the village squire and the vicar have to warn the very irate earl about creating a scandal with Laura, before he considers the impropriety of his actions. And I found it very hard to believe that the earl needed to be reminded about the consequences of his actions where Laura was concerned. A more thoughtful hero would have considered this aspect of things from the very beginning!

And then there is the manner in which the earl decides to resolve Laura's problems by finding the man that she is hiding form and confronting him about his past behaviour towards her and threatening him to leave her alone, thereby alerting him to the fact that she is still alive and putting her in harm's way again. This, we're supposed to believe is the only solution that the powerful earl could come up with? It made very little sense. And then there is the whole notion that one could obtain a 'quick and quiet' divorce is Regency England. Divorces at the time were extremely rare and could only be obtained only after a somewhat messy and public trial, involving one spouse accusing the other of certain crimes and lots of scandal. And few people ever recovered their social reputations after having pursued such a (for the time) notorious course of action. So that the whole concept of a quiet divorce in the early 19th century would be an oxymoron.

I am actually not being very fair to this novel. Julia Justiss has created a very sympathetic heroine in Laura Martin, and I couldn't help but get involved with her problems and fears. I wanted to find a way out of the horrifying position that she was in, and rooted for her to find a measure of peace and happiness. It's just that those three points that I raised got to me, most especially the one about heroes who always seem to have momentary pleasure in mind at someone else's expense. "My Lady's Trust" is really not a bad read, and I probably would have liked it a lot more if I hadn't spent the previous week watching A&E's rebroadcast of "Pride and Prejudice" as well as rereading all six of her novels again. So here's my recommendation: enjoy this novel for it's heroine, Laura Martin, as she truly makes this novel worth reading.