Mrs Mudgeley tells Gilly that she will be glad to see Belinda return to the farm and that while the girl is foolish, she is good hearted and will probably learn to be a good farmer's wife. Gilly persuades Jasper that he has looked after her and has not tried to seduce her.
However when he gets back to Bath, Belinda has vanished. Lord Gaywood, Harriet's brother, has been flirting with her and she has apparently gone off with him. However Tom rescues her, and Gilly asks her if she really likes Gaywood better than Mr Mudgeley. She tells him no, she loves Jasper but she does not think that he will ever be found... and she naively tells him that she did not just go off with Gaywood, she asked him to buy her a purple silk dress, which she has always wanted, and he went off to do it, so she thinks that he is well meaning.
He tells her that he has found Mr Mudgeley and he can take her to him.. and she is happy to go. He and Harriet deliver her safely to the farm, and are glad to know that she will be cared for and looked after, with the one man who does love her. The couple return to Bath, with Gilly rejoicing that he has finally become tough enough to manage his own affairs and stand up to his uncles and other well meaning relatives and staff. He and Harriet plan their wedding......
The book is well written, with a lot of humour coming from the antics of Tom and the silly ways of Belinda. There is little romantic tension as Gilly is away from his fiancee most of the time, but Heyer manages to make it a charming love affair, with his realising that he does love her, in spite of her shyness and the interference of their families and the fact that he did not choose her himself. The novel is more about the development of the gentle shy young man who hates hurting or disappointing people, into a young man who is capable of making his own decisions, putting up with the discomforts of posing as a not so rich person, and rescuing his lame ducks from their problems.
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