The Italian Connection (A Certain State Of Marriage #7)

The Italian Connection

Evern is revisited in this late Eighteenth Century romantic romp, which also brings back on to the stage the Marquis of Sarlenne and his beautiful wife, Lady Jessica.

Lord and Lady Sarlenne finally decide to return to England after spending several years at their Italian property. In tow they have their three children, and a young lady requiring their escort to safely reach her guardian’s care. The French revolution has made travelling across Europe more hazardous during the past few years, and so Isabella was unable to journey to England immediately following her father’s death the previous year. But having befriended Lady Jessica, she gratefully accepts a passage on Maxim’s yacht for the journey.
No one is more surprised than her guardian, Lord Torisseur, when he receives first a letter informing him of his estranged half-brother’s death and his subsequent guardianship of his Italian niece; and then the arrival of his lively ward. For a more unsuitable guardian would be hard to find. And Lady Jessica, quickly realising this, decides to accept the offered hospitality of the Duke and Duchess of Evern, so relieving Torisseur of personally having to manage the affairs of his pretty niece, at least for the time being.
The usual routines of Evern, and of the neighbourhood are thrown into chaos by Isabella’s arrival on the scene that summer, with every young gentleman in the district wooing the twenty-year-old heiress. But her heart is won by a most unlikely candidate, who, to be fair, initially wasn’t even considering, let alone trying to win her hand. For Sir Benedict, fast approaching his thirty-eighth year is well aware that what he needs is a mature and steady wife, who will have nothing more than his comfort and his wishes in the forefront of her mind.
And not all is tranquil in the Earl of Brecan’s household. For the earl and his wife have reached an impasse in a most important difference of opinion. Just which of them is the most stubborn on this marital subject would be hard to tell. But Lady Kate, with her subtle plays and stately beauty is determined she will be the victor no matter how devious and manipulative a game she has to resort to.
In fact, in this Eighteenth Century romp there are times when the adults quite out do the children’s antics.

‘The Italian Connection’ is an Eighteenth Century romp, with tongue in cheek humour, amid romance and passion.