Temperance O'Neil is a strong willed famous activist in New York City. She campaigns to improve conditions for deserted women and children. But Temperance has never lived without money and has never been seduced by a man and because of her inexperience does not really understand the plight of those she feels she is helping. One evening she returns home to discover her widowed mother has remarried. Her husband an old fashioned Scotsman who believes her activism is unnatural. He forbids her to continue and makes her return with him and her mother to Scotland. He feels that once in Scotland Temperance will fall in line and become a more natural female and he will eventually find her a husband in spite of her almost 30 years.
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Temperance makes his life miserable. She involves herself in every charity she can and spends a lot of money. Her step-father, Angus McCairn blackmails her into accepting a position as housekeeper to his nephew, James McCairn. He tells her that if she cleans up the house and finds a wife for James he will allow her to return to New York and her activism. She accepts.
James McCairn is a man in his mid thirties who has sworn he will never remarry. His first wife had made his life miserable and died on night trying to leave him. She had rode her horse off a cliff. He truly believes that Angus has sent him Temperance in hopes that he will marry her. If he doesn't marry by his 35th birthday he will loose his estate to his twin brother who it is believed has inherited the family curse of gambling.
Temperance throws herself into cleaning his home and becomes involved in the affairs of the local villagers and wins there loyalty and James's love. Eventually a woman arrives who will marry James and Temperance finds herself jealous of her. Kenna wants to marry James because of a legend that there is a fortune buried in the house. Temperance is to plan the wedding. When the day of the wedding arrives Kenna is not the one to marry James. James and the villagers have plotted to trick Temperance into marrying James.
This book is filled with Temperance learning about herself on this assignment.She comes to realize that she was not as involved with the plight of the less fortunate as she thought. She does return to New York but not before she becomes pregnant with James's son.
The review of this Book prepared by plnorth
Temperance O'Neil is a woman ahead of her time. Almost 30 yrs old, never married, she is married to her work-helping single mothers in New York City. She draws on her inheritance to do this. When her mother marries a Scot, he disapproves of her enterprise & cuts off her inheritance, demanding that she move with them to Edinburgh. Before long he decides he has to find something else to do with her...so he bargains with her. If she will find a wife for his nephew James, while acting as his housekeeper, he will let her return to New York & give her a living allowance. So she is off to the Highlands farm, confident it shouldn't be too hard to find a wife for the man. She makes a surprising discovery...and his perfect match may surprise her most of all.
The review of this Book prepared by Kim Mills
Temperance O'Neil is a strong-willed, outspoken woman fighting for equal rights for women in New York. That is, until her mother's new husband, Angus, tells her that he will cut her off without a cent if she doesn't agree to live by his rules and to find herself a husband. Forced into the backwoods of Scotland, Temperance agrees to act as a housekeeper for Angus's nephew, James McCairn, and if she can find him a wife, she'll be allowed to go free, with all the money she wants. But it isn't as easy as Temperance thought it would be, and it becomes harder and harder for her to resist the sexy Scotsman's rugged good looks, gentle heart, and tempting offers. Once again, Deveraux brings to life a charming couple ripe for romance, heartbreak, love, and strife in the wilds of early 1900's Scotland.
The review of this Book prepared by Pamela Piarowski
