Reluctant Widow

This is one of Heyer's adventure novels. It is set in the countryside, during the Napoleonic Wars. Elinor Rochdale is a young woman of 26 who has lost her parents and has no money, so she has been working as a governess. She takes up an appointment with a lady, and when she arrives by Stage coach to start her new job, she finds a carriage has been sent for her. This is an unusual honour for a governess. She travels to the house and finds that it is rather shabby, and that a man of about 30 seems to be in charge. He tells her that her new charge is very difficult. After a long conversation, she realises that they are talking at cross purposes and that she is at the wrong house. Lord Carlyon, who has welcomed her, thought that she was a woman who had been hired from an advertisement in the papers, to marry his wayward cousin, Eustace. The woman whom he hired did not turn up. Elinor is shaken to find that she's at a strange man's house, miles away from where her new employer is. She tells Lord Carlyon that her father lost his fortune and shot himself, leaving her almost penniless. Carlyon owns an estate nearby. He tells her that he is the eldest of a large family, and that he has always been the one who looked after his siblings. She tells him that she's the daughter of a man who shot himself, after losing his fortune. She had been taken in by relatives as a poor relation, but they were not kind to her. So she preferred to be independent, though the life of a governess is far from easy. He tells her that if Eustace dies without a wife, the young man's estate, Highnoons, will pass to him, Carlyon, and he does not want the estate. He and his cousin don't get on, and Eustace has done his reputation harm, by accusing him of bad behaviour. He would rather not inherit the estate as it would look like he had deliberately schemed to get it. Carlyon then suggests that as Elinor is alone in the world and badly off, she could marry Eustace, and become heir to his estate. While the estate is almost worthless due to mismanagement, he would provide for her. Or she could try to make a living running it. Elinor refuses the idea.