The Squire's Daughter

Cicely is the daughter of a domineering and opinionated squire who ensures that he and his sons get to do whatever they want, but, although his wife and daughter are not badly treated, their preferences and personalities receive very little consideration from him. As a result, Cicely has grown up rather uneducated and with very little opportunity to meet new people. When she does get a trip to London, she starts to realize that she has missed out on some things that other girls of her generation are enjoying, and she resents it.
When she gets back home, her unofficial fiance Jim has just arrived from a prolonged absence. Jim is a worthy, quiet fellow who loves Cicely much more than everybody realizes. But she no longer feels certain that show more she wants to marry him. She sees her future life with him as just one long continuation of life with her father, where her own tastes and preferences don't matter, where she has to submerge her own personality and intellect in favor of the men of the family. So when an unexpected proposal comes her way to elope with Mackenzie, a near stranger who leads a very exciting and adventurous life, she is strongly tempted.
Before she can be happy she has the problem of figuring out why exactly she feels discontented, what kind of men Jim and Mackenzie truly are, and what they would each expect from her.
Pretty enjoyable. show less