The Affair At Greengage Manor

Richard Browning is looking forward to a quiet settled life with his engagement to Miss Wingate. But before the engagement is even announced things begin to unravel. Five bedraggled orphans, one of them wounded and an imperious governess arrive on his doorstep. They are the children of his runaway twin who has died in America. They have made the long journey to his grandmother's home, seeking family to take them in. They acquired the governess when the oldest boy participates in robbing her carriage and is shot in the attempt. She discovers their plight and assists them in locating their family. This is the beginning of many problems this family must iron out before the end. Well done Regency romance.

It's not often that a governess on holiday finds herself being held up by highwaymen, and it's even less often that highway robbery leaves such a governess in charge of five impetuous, travel-weary children searching for a new home. But that is exactly Alexandra Lytton's situation. Caring for her young robber's wounds, she soon gains the trust of the children and determines to see them safely home to their uncle.

Richard Browning has finally gained some stability in his life. He is well-to-do, newly affianced to a beautiful woman, and happy in his ancestral home Greengage Manor. The last thing he wants or expects is an invasion of five dusty, ragged children, and a prickly governess who takes him to task for his chilly reception of his show more kin - and who is determined to protect them from the machinations of his fiancee to pack the children off to work or boarding school as soon as can be arranged.

The story certainly contained a fun premise - the hijinks the children got up to were entertaining, but it seemed that the book focused primarily on the children and not on the romance supposedly brewing between the hero and the heroine. Every time they spoke, she was taking him to task for his treatment of the children - high-spirited little hellions who never did seem to apologize for the trouble they caused, regardless of how probationary their stay at their uncle's home was supposed to be. I would have expected them to try a little harder to either behave or make amends.

With the children coming to adore and trust their governess, their tricks, and the evil fiancee, this was drawn straight from The Sound of Music - just without the singing, or the Nazis of course. Even the waltz under the trees seemed familiar. But the romance just never took off. There seemed to be less affection and tension than a whole lot of child-rearing advice. A pity - this tame little story could have used a little stirring up.

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