April Lady By Georgette Heyer

April Lady is one of my favourite Heyer novels.. though not all fans like it. It is a short novel.. and starts with a heroine who is already married to the hero. This sort of story has its limitations as the hero and heroine have to work out their differences and there is a lack of suspense. Heyer is such a skilled writer that she can write this kind of novel and make it enjoyable. Lady Helen Irvine, called Nell, the heroine, is a young woman who comes from an impoverished upper class family.. Her brother Lord Dysart is a gambler. Her father also has led a life of excess, and has had a stroke after years of drinking and over spending. Her husband Giles Merion, Lord Cardross, is a serious man several years her senior. Nell believes that he married her in order to have an heir.. but she herself fell in love with him on first sight and desperately wants to make him love her. Giles however has actually been smitten with his bride.. but after their marriage she seems to be taken up with enjoying the fashionable lifestyle of a married lady and is very extravagant. He is not sure if he can ever win her love. So he has been kind and friendly but not overpowering. Before his marriage, he had had an affair with a society hostess, Lady Orsett. But he had fallen in love with Nell. Nell knows about Lady Orsett and fears that if she shows too much affection for her husband he will become bored with her.