Byrne's Goode Girls Series (Seducing a Stranger: Book 1)

Seducing a Stranger (Goode Girls Book 1)*

Kerrigan Byrne

 

Stars:  Definitely ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (CARLTON MORLEY IS A GOD, police, Scotland Yard, vigilante, mystery, intrigue, great characters, fun story, witty dialogue, HOT SEX)

Heat rating:   🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 (HOLY MOLY, IN. THE. FIRST. CHAPTER.)

I should probably break this into two parts. But when do I ever do what I should? This is going to be a long one because this is my absolute favorite book. 🏆

I had planned to wend my way through the romance novels I’ve read, in the order I read them, for this blog, but I couldn’t help myself. I. LOVE. THIS. BOOK. I love everything about this book. I have probably read it in its entirety 25 times. I have read snippets of it many more times than that. I am completely and utterly in love with Carlton Morley. And that was a surprise to me because I LOATHED him in the first Victorian Rebels book. These series are intertwined, and though I hope this review will send you running to the bookstore (and it’s free for Amazon Kindle Unlimited readers—but believe me, buying it is more than worth it), you need to read the Victorian Rebels first. I’m serious . . . this review will 100% spoil the Rebels series.

* This is the first book in the Goode Girls series, but also considered Victorian Rebels Book 7, since Morley was introduced in the first book in that series and plays a significant role throughout the 6 books that make it up. Seducing a Stranger was initially called A Dark and Stormy Knight and I am so glad KB put the kibosh on that. It gives away too much and is just a wee bit cheesy.  

Can I just describe my main squeeze Carlton Morley for you? First of all, he’s a cop. I love cops. I come from a family of cops and, as I mentioned previously, my only brother was a police officer killed in the line of duty. That being said, it’s not the only reason I like him. He was cop in Victorian Rebels, and I hated him. Anyway, in this book, he’s the bloody CHIEF INSPECTOR OF SCOTLAND YARD. And it’s wearing on him. SPOILER for Victorian Rebels 6, The Duke with the Dragon Tattoo, which you SHOULD HAVE READ before you read this book or this review, being a cop in 1880s London is rough. And Morley was having trouble:

“A sense of helplessness he knew every police officer carried around with him.

The shackles of the law locked upon its enforcers were both right and necessary. And yet, they created certain loopholes that became leashes whereby a lawman might be forced to watch an atrocity happen without being about to take recourse.” (page 57).

(Reminder: I know, I know, I know we don’t need quotation marks with quotations in offset paragraphs, but, since these are the author’s words and I respect them, I want to ensure everyone recognizes that she owns these words and I am just using them here to show appreciation for her work. And to tell you to run, do not walk, to buy this bloody book. It’s magical.) 

And this causes Morley to decide to take things into his own hands. He becomes the Knight of Shadows. (I love a gentleman vigilante and it’s one reason why Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series, which features the Ghost of St. Giles, is another absolute favorite).

I love how KB calls him Morley throughout the book. First of all, it’s a thing cops do. They never know any of their coworkers’ first names. It also emphasizes the distance between him and Prudence.

Secondly, HIS EYES. 💙 Okay, so KB’s description of his eyes stopped me in my tracks because they sound JUST like my partner’s eyes: “wintry as the Arctic and hot as blue flame.” So here we have this hot cop with eyes just like my man’s. He’s this blond god, a hustler from the streets who has become a gentleman, but that kid from the streets is still living inside him. And finally, CAN THAT MAN PLEASURE A WOMAN, OR WHAT? (Who needs a Stag when you've got Morley?)

His awful upbringing is explained in the prologue. If you’ve read Victorian Rebels (don't make me repeat myself ), you’ll have an idea about how they all grew up. His childhood best friend ended up being a pirate. His poor sister sold herself to survive and ended up murdered. There was no Carlton; back then, he was Cutter Morley, a thief and a hustler.

I love how KB has introduced this character throughout the previous series and this one. We find out slowly that he is more than he appears. In the first Victorian Rebels book, The Highwayman, he is a total asshole, with a stick up his ass to boot. He is boring and bland and easy to hate. That starts to slowly change, and by the 6^th book, I was warming up to him. And then this book happened.

More about the Knight of Shadows (that name just makes me shiver). Morley is fed up with what happens to the voiceless victims, like his beloved twin sister. Right now, he’s trying to solve some cases that have been closed with no solution. Three young men are dead, and he wants to know why.

“Morley had other means at his disposal… and there were many forms of law and justice. The Queen’s Justice. The law of the land. Divine justice. The laws of nature.

And the justice of the streets.

The laws of which were unwritten but universally heeded. The laws of the land were necessary to uphold, and he’d devoted his entire career to doing so. But the laws of the streets afforded him the means to mete out justice where the system had failed.

And they’d failed these murdered men.” (25)

Okay, as painful as it is, I have to leave Morley for a minute. Because the book begins with Prudence Goode, who “no longer desired to be good.” See, Prudence has always been a good girl in name and actions, though she’s known as the “second eldest and second prettiest” of the sisters. She’s going to marry in three months, and she just learned that her fiancé is a total POS. (His name is George Hamby-Forsyth, the Earl of Sutherland—c’mon, with a name like that, who is really surprised?) He’s constantly screwing around and even has several illegitimate children. Pru had no idea, but happened to hear her sister and best friend gossiping about it. And she’s gutted—not only is her fiancé a dog, but the people closest to her knew it and never told her. Here’s the thing, this was definitely no love match, though, in the beginning, Pru hoped it was going to be a fairy tale marriage. But now, Pru knows the real deal about why they’re getting married: “her father foisted her off on the highest-ranging noble desperate enough to have her at nine and twenty.” (13) And dear Lord, he sounds awful; on that same page, we hear he’s “the most notorious spirit-swilling, mistress-having, loud-mouthed and fractious idiot in all Blighty.” I seriously love how KB writes. Her descriptions are fire! Pru tries to get out of it by going to her father, who is a horrible person, so there’s no way that’s happening—he’s basically like, you need to learn to deal with the screwing around, and her mother backs him up when Pru tries to get her to intervene. She is stuck.

Anyway, Pru is pissed and she’s only got ONE thing she can use to get back at old Georgie boy—she’s planning to hand over that maidenhead to a male prostitute. Well, if she’s going all the way, she may as well get a professional, right?

Yeah, that’s what she thinks . . .

Let’s veer off and talk about Pru’s age for a second. You know how I feel about the perfect, 19-year-old supermodel heroines. They’re fine, but you also like to share the journey of unconventional heroines, and honestly, in 1880, 29 years old is ANCIENT. She’s so far on the shelf, you can’t even see her.

So the stage is set and that train is racing down the tracks and now Pru is at the gates for Miss Henrietta’s School for Cultured Young Ladies. While her sister and bestie are gossiping about what a whore her betrothed is, they also let something slip: THE STAGS OF ST. JAMES. Okay, listen to me here: St. James is the patron saint of riding. (Do you see why I love KB’s books? They are so flipping clever.) And Pru is ready to “claim a night of pleasure for her very own. One night she was controlled by her desires and whims, and where her satisfaction was the object of the deed.” (20) Hell yeah, Pru. More power to ya, lady! 

So where is our heroine now? At that gates, armed with the password, which is “I’m here to peruse the night-blooming jasmine.” Constant Reader, YOU KNOW I get overly excited about night-blooming jasmine (see my review of Susanna Craig’s Who’s That Earl to learn more about my fascination with this plant). If I ever needed a sign from the Universe that this book is for me, that’s it right there.

So, our Pru is heading into the garden, and man, she’s getting an education and an eyeful. They’re luxurious and made for privacy, and honestly, made for f*cking. Women are free to approach any Stag who isn’t with someone. A helpful footman suggests a few prospects, but Pru is kinda skeeved out by the biblical imagery (and who can blame her; that dried everything right up). When she mentions it to the footman, he replies, “Go to church if you want to judge, Madam, we’re all here to commit a cardinal sin, maybe several.” (I’ll drink to that!)

So here goes our Pru, wandering about the garden, seeing sights that are blowing the mind of a 29-year-old virgin. But she feels powerful because, in this environment, she does the choosing; that is unheard of  in 1880s ton society. Look around, Pru . . . it’s time to choose. Well, Pru wasn’t looking around, so she literally runs into her destiny. 

Guess you’ve figured it out already, but the Knight of Shadows a.k.a. man of my dreams Carlton Morley has scaled a wall and is currently hanging out at Miss Henrietta’s trying to figure out how these three young men ended up dead. When he gets there, he has no idea it’s an orgy. And in true rigid, controlled, impassive, unflappable Carlton Morley fashion, he sees the sights and he definitely has thoughts:

“If someone had told him he’d already died and gone to Elysium, he might have believed them. For this resembled something of a pagan paradise. Friction and fornication hinted at everywhere, if not flagrantly happening.

No one exactly f*cked in the open, but neither was a gazebo, a sheer tent, a hedge maze or a copse of carefully placed trees considered a proper place for a romp.

Even the air was sweeter here, whispering of lilacs and gardenias rather than the singular smells of the city. The garden sparkled like the very stars might visit to watch the debauchery. It was a dream crafted by honey-hued lighting and fluttering fabrics.

Of all the bastardly bacchanalian bullshit.” (27)

I laughed the hell OUT LOUD at that last line. (“Friction and fornication” is definitely going to be the name of my band if I ever learn to sing and/or play an instrument.) The best part of this is that most men would not be too upset that they landed where they did, but this is the bloody Chief Inspector of Scotland Yard and he tries to hold himself as the most straightlaced stick-in-the-mud on the planet. Morley’s response? “He’s broken into a brothel of all places whilst searching for a killer.” (28)

The thing is, I can’t even laugh because my man is hurting. He doesn’t sleep. He’d already been out this night breaking up brawls and stopping attempted rapes, but he doesn’t want gratitude. “He was no hero. These were just things he did, sweeping up small crimes while he chased nightmares through the night.” (29) Cuz, you see, he is not just hurting, he is HAUNTED. Haunted by nightmares that lived in the daylight, and by “the ghosts of those he’d killed, of those who’d endeavored to kill him. Of the souls he’d failed to save and the monsters who’d escaped justice.” (29) Our tortured hero is a mess:

“Every time he’d thought he’d hit the bottom, he realized he was still falling.

That the depths could always be deeper. That the night could always be darker. That the world could always be colder.” (29)

He’s feeling lost, unfulfilled, inconsequential, but he cannot stop hunting. And that’s how he ends up at the “borderline pornographic fountain” where our gal Pru legit falls into his arms. Pru isn’t a graceful gal, and she knows it. She attempts to apologize, but she’s seen who caught her and she’s dazzled (even with a mask) by his beautiful eyes and golden hair. And he’s equally dazzled. Morley, CARLTON FREAKING MORLEY, is left wishing he read poetry so he could figure out how to describe the woman in his arms. (If I was falling in love with Morley before, my feelings just took a high dive.) Sigh . . . And he’s shook, because he is actually happy she fell into his arms. Who are you and what have you done with Morley?

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I know our SEX-AND-SPOILERS section is usually later but you’re getting the warning now because the sex that happens in this first chapter shapes the entire book. So lemme pull out my warning language early, blah blah blah. Imagine I’m reading it really quickly like those side effects in pharmaceutical ads. REMINDER: don’t continue if you don’t want to hear about sex and/or you don’t want to hear about the ending. These are primarily HEAs, which means H (Hero) and h (heroine) are getting together before the last page. So you know it’s coming. Please read the package insert for more information and talk to your doctor if you have any questions. That last part was a joke.

 

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Yeah, but anyway, Morley and Pru don’t wait till the last page. They’re IN IT by page 37. And it all starts when Pru looks upon the perfection called Carlton Morley, though she doesn’t know who he is, of course. She thinks he’s an angel, and soon pronounces: “Yes, you’ll do rather nicely, I think.”

Morley is clueless.

And it’s hilarious. Awkward Pru is trying to find out how much it will cost her to have this angel. Morley is slowly catching a clue, but he’s pretty flabbergasted. Also, Pru JABBERS when she’s nervous. It’s adorable.

“Morley blinked down at her as three things had just become inexorably clear to him. The first was this woman talked incessantly when nervous, and her babble was oddly endearing.

Second, she was from a wealthy family, likely blue-blooded and likely married.

And tertiary . . . he’d lived probably nearly forty years and had never met a woman he’d so keenly desired to f*ck.

A hunger awakened within him with all the ferocity of a hibernating beast. It had teeth and claws and tore his decency to shreds before going to work on his restraint.” (33)

Nope, Pru is not the only one having an awakening tonight. While she stands there, waiting for an answer, a mighty battle is going through Carlton Morley’s brain, and the hungry demon is gaining advantage, because when he prepares to reject her, his mouth says, instead, “What do you want me to do to you?” Oh, FYI, Morley isn’t using his Chief Inspector voice here—he’s reached deep down for the Cockney of Cutter Morley. And I love it.

I told you that Pru babbles, right? Well, instead of immediately getting to the down and dirty, she tells her angel stranger about her fiancé and how GH-F an asshat. She plans to go through with the wedding (what else can she do?) but until then, she owns her life and her body. And Pru wants her angel stranger. Oh, and she tells him that she wants it to start with him on his knees, and just like that, the demon WINS! “Sweet Christ, he was going to devour her. And she knew it as well as he did.” (36)

Hold on. Give me a second . . . 💦

Where did I leave you? Oh, Morley is on his knees, licking her where it counts, and Pru just saw the face of God. Or something. And Pru, who worries about EVERYTHING (seriously, she makes my anxiety seem minor), is experiencing true bliss until her angel stranger abruptly stops mid-Colonel Angus (WHICH IS POSSIBLY THE BEST SNL SKIT OF ALL TIME) and she immediately thinks he hates her. I mean, everything is going through her head, mostly, “is everything clean enough down there?” (you are lying if you say you’ve never wondered the same thing when you’ve been in a similar situation). But no, that’s not the reason (Morley is actually having a grand old time gorging himself on the feast before him). He surfaces from a sea of skirts:

“’Your fiancé. Get rid of him,’ he ordered.

‘B-but—’

‘If there is a man on this planet who would prefer another woman to you . . . to this . . . ’ he thrummed a rough-skinned thumb over her slick and aching sex, eliciting a soft whimper from her. ‘He doesn’t deserve it. He shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce. Moreover, he should be shot. Drawn and quartered, and wiped from memory.’” (43)

Great God. Someone find me a time machine. I’m headed back to 1880. 🏃

This scene is FIRE and I’ve only shared a fraction of it. But Pru is there to divest herself of her virginity, because it’s the last thing GH-F deserves, and even though our masked hero doesn’t realize she’s totally untouched, Pru thinks THIS man deserves it. She’s begging and finally, “He stole her next words with a strong thrust. Prudence bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. She’d expected pain. Or maybe pleasure. But not this unbearably magnificent medley of the two.” (49) KB follows this up with a poetic passage about orgasms. Yeah, I said, it  . . .  poetry. I am sharing these quotes from the book because you need to experience a bit of the magic KB weaves with her words. It makes the reading experience incredibly satisfying.

But there’s no way Morley is going to hang around, even though Pru is awkwardly trying to figure out how she can see him again, and wants to tell him her name. But she turns away to get dressed and when she turns back around, he is gone. Like a shadow.

We are only at chapter 4, and hell is about to break loose.

We blink and it’s three months later and you know what that means. I’m not going to play coy, because I know you’re a smart cookie, Constant Reader. After a night in paradise, Pru is in the hell of Holy Trinity Cathedral, about to get married to GH-F. And she is rightly miserable.

Strangely, we are not focusing on her right now. We are in a carriage with Chief Inspector Sir Carlton Morley and his subordinate, Detective Inspector Christopher Argent (who we know as the former assassin from The Hunter, and his lady love, the actress Millie LeCour). Millie ain’t afraid of Morley, and is therefore busting his chops about the newspaper coverage of the Knight of Shadows. Argent is responding in his usual monosyllables (but their story is a good one, as you no doubt agree, since I TOLD YOU TO READ THE VICTORIAN REBELS BEFORE YOU READ THIS).

Morley is even more cantankerous than before, if you can believe it. He never sleeps, he’s working insane hours for Scotland Yard, he’s out all night hunting evildoers as the Knight and . . . he’s also  looking for “her” everywhere, to no avail. He’s seeing her hair in ravens’ wings. He’s looking for her all over London. But here they are, heading to the wedding of someone they don’t know because “attendance was expected of him. And Carlton Morley always did what was expected. So that his sins were never suspected.” And now he’s heading to the wedding of the police commissioner’s daughter, Miss Prudence Goode. 👀 (Cue dramatic music and pour yourself a drink.)

Yeah, Morley is planning to show his face and roll up out that joint as soon as humanly possible (which is how most of us feel about any work-required event, even if it involves free food; don’t lie). And he’s not paying attention (c’mon, Chief Inspector, that ain’t like you) because he is caught up in his obsession with his mystery woman. He wants to find her, yet he doesn’t. Because “she’d a secret that could crush him in the telling of it—not that she’d come out smelling of roses.” (Little. Does. He. Know.)

The tension here is exquisite. We see the runaway train heading straight for Morley. We know it’s going to be some kind of shit show. We just don’t know what. Will he walk into the church, see her face and stop the ceremony? Will he run from the chapel, silently screaming? Oh, no, we know our man Morley. He would probably sit there, cold and still as marble, while he watched “her” disappear from his life. And he’d probably be grateful. Right?

If you think that, you haven’t read Kerrigan Byrne before. There’s going to be a twist, and it’s gonna be a good one.

Cue part two of the SEX-AND-SPOILERS section. Time for some minor spoilers. No, it’s not the big spoiler; I refuse to tell you that. Basically, the summary of what I’ve told you prior to this point you’d be able to find on the author’s website. What I am telling you now is new info, so if you don’t want to hear it, stop now, grab the book (like I said, free on Unlimited, but you’ll want to buy it, believe me). And come back to me when you’re done. (I’ll wait.)

Cue that Final Jeopardy music. 🎶

Okay, so you’re still with me if you (1) don’t mind some spoilers, or (2) have read the book.

Let’s continue.

Morley walks in the door and immediately, he’s set upon by the vicar, who is white as a sheet and trembling like a leaf. He wants Morley to come with him and deal with the nightmare, and he’s not taking no for an answer. So Morley follows the vicar to the little sitting room, which is covered in blood, the centerpiece being the bride, in her lovely cream dress, clutching a bloody knife. Yeah, that would be an issue alone, but wait, there’s more . . .

“The f*cking priest had been right.

Of all the nightmares . . .

It was her.” (63)

When Morley walks in, it’s a cacophony. Her elder sister Honoria’s husband is shrieking at her. I really dislike him. Pru dislikes him as well, and this drama is standard operating procedure for him. Though, to be fair, GH-F was William’s best friend. And now he’s lying on the floor, drained of blood. Yeah, my man is dead dead.

Wait, more yelling. It’s her father, the police commissioner. Lovely. We already know from earlier, when he threatened her when she tried to get out of marrying GH-F, that he is a bully. Poor Pru is surrounded by men yelling and bells ringing. That sounds hellish.

“The door opened. A man entered.

And the pandemonium stopped.

Everyone obeyed his command for silence and, for the first time, Pru’s throat relaxed enough to allow a full breath. The sick sense of impending doom released the band around her ribs and her stomach stopped threatening to jump into her esophagus.

Everything would be all right. He was here now. Even though the world was upside down, he would know how to put it right.

Except . . . who was he?” (66)

Oh, we know who it is. He takes the knife from her, speaking to her calmly in a “deep, cultured voice.” LOOK UP, PRU, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. And finally, she does. And she looks into his eyes:

“Those eyes.

They had once been liquid for her behind a mask. They had watched her come apart.

He’d made her come.” (67)

I will admit. When I read those lines, I whooped and scared the cat. But I was so excited. Finally, they’re back together. At the worst time and in the worst way. Here is possibly salvation, because we know Pru didn’t kill her fiancé. That’s just not Pru. She might have talked him to death, but she’s not going to knife him and then stand there, covered in blood, waiting to be discovered. (I mean, duh.)

So yes, her possible salvation. Hell, her ONLY salvation. And she looks into those eyes. She knows it’s him. “She was sure of it . . . wasn’t she? No one else had eyes so light, so incredibly elemental. Like the color of lightning over the Baltic Sea. Those eyes bored into her now. Flat, merciless, and unsympathetic. He regarded her as if she were the last person alive he wanted to see.” (68) Poor Pru.

I won’t lie to you. I want to walk you through every minute of this interaction, because I love it. But that’s not why I’m here. Let’s move to after she explains that she was lured there, found George with a knife in his neck, went over to help him, and was found by her brother-in-law. Someone slipped her a note to get her there, purportedly from George saying he wanted to apologize, and you know our lawman focuses on that. Morley asks her if he had reason to apologize and Pru is finally pissed, “You know I did.” Yeah, dude, seriously. But he stops her with a look: “A glint of warning frosted the inspector’s eyes impossibly colder. Don’t. It warned. Don’t ruin us both.” (69) Oh Morley. I’m so disappointed in you. I know, I know, you’ve got a job to do, but it’s your mystery woman. You know her (even in the Biblical sense).

Anyway, he makes everyone leave the room, and you know they hop to it, because he’s MORLEY, though he’s tempted to put a boot in brother-in-law’s ass (hell, give him one for me, too). William has painted her a murderess and refuses to hear anything counter to that. Screw that guy. Honoria’s marriage has got to SUCK.

And finally, Morley and Pru are alone. For the first time in 3 months.

She comes toward him and he shuts her off, sparking my FAVORITE scene in the entire book.

“'Prudence Goode,’ he stated blandly. ‘I’m arresting you under the suspicion of the murder of George Hamby-Forsyth, Earl of Sutherland.’

‘It’s you. I know it’s you. I’ve been looking everywhere since that night—’

‘I told you to leave him,’ he said furiously, stabbing a finger at the body of her would-be husband. ‘I ordered you that night, and here you are.’

‘I know.’ (73)

This scene is magical. Pru consistently makes him lose control. NOBODY else can do that to him. Morley is like a diamond, cold and hard and impenetrable, except when he’s with her.

And the worst thing is that he thinks she did it, and you can tell it’s breaking his heart. He’s going to try to keep her from the gallows and, by God, if anyone can do it, it’s Carlton-bloody-Morley.

But Pru scoffs. She doesn’t need him if he doesn’t believe her. She won’t be hanged. And here is why:

SPOILER

“’I won’t go to the gallows,’ she said stoically. ‘I don’t need your help.’

‘Like hell—’

‘They won’t hang a woman in my condition.’ Her hand went to her waist. This had been her secret. Not the murder.

His mouth opened soundlessly, and his fists curled shut as he stared at her for a multitude of shocked moments. ‘You’re . . . pregnant?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘And the child is yours.’”

Sweet baby Jesus, after that exchange, I was DONE. I knew I’d never sleep until this book was finished. (Morgan Freeman voice: And she stayed up all night.)

So what happened after she revealed to the man who had just arrested her for murder that he’d knocked her up? Oh, and she knows he’s the Knight of Shadows? He puts her in a cell and goes to his office in Scotland Yard. LMFAO. Morley gonna Morley.

And sat there for an hour, staring into space. He would probably still be sitting there, except his best friend strolled in. If you’ve read the 6^th Victorian Rebels—I TOLD YOU TO READ IT. I ORDERED YOU TO . . . I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself—you’ll know that his best friend is The Rook, Ash, a fearsome pirate and all around scary sexy dude. And Morley’s glad to see him. So they banter back and forth the way men have done forever, until Ash throws some news on him—Dorian Blackwell is going to be there in a minute. God, I love her dialogue:

“’Come the f*ck again?’ Morley straightened. ‘The Blackheart of Ben More, King of the London Underworld is coming here? To my office in the middle of the day?’ His jaw locked against the rest of the sentence, hissing the last of these through clenched teeth.” (77)

And, oh yeah, they used to be nemeses. In fact, Morley proposed to Dorian’s future wife. There’s bad blood there, but they’re working their way through it. (Good work, boys.)

Anyway, Dorian is a help, so when he and Argent, who used to work with him before he started walking the (relatively) straight and narrow, enter the room, the topic of conversation is the wedding that didn’t happen, and the murder. They suggest the Knight of Shadows would be the best to conduct the investigation, which would usually make sense, but . . . it leads into my second favorite scene in the book:

“’I’ve become a bit . . . ‘ [Morley] cast about for the right word. Embroiled? Consumed? Obsessed? Entangled? ‘Involved with Commissioner Goode’s daughter.'” (93). Now these men KNOW Morley, so they’re going to give him shit. This is not what Morley does and though he seems mortified about the whole thing, they’re not thinking it’s THAT bad. They’re actually teasing him about having an "affair," since that is so out of character as to be laughable. He’s got her locked in a cell and they are all blasé about it; read Victorian Rebels and you’ll see how, as Ash puts it, to them “a bit of kidnapping is no insurmountable impediment.” Hahaha.

Oh no, Morley’s about to shock them. And Dorian is about to utter the line that reverberates in my head, in the Scottish accent that I attribute to him (I don’t care if it’s warranted or not; Dorian has a great brogue in my head). Sit back, buckle up, and here we go:

“'My investigation of some murdered men took me to Miss Henrietta’s, where they’d worked as stags. I was in the garden and Miss Goode sort of . . . mistook me for . . ..' He couldn’t bring himself to say the bloody word.

Ash’s mouth fell open. 'A prostitute?'

'Is she blind?' Dorian’s nose wrinkled as he raked him with a disbelieving glare.

Morley sat back in his chair, cursing himself for saying a damned word to any of them.

It was Argent who leaned forward, his expression fascinated. 'And?'

'And . . . we . . . ' Morley flicked his hand out in a gesture that could have meant anything.

'Holy f*cking Christ, you didn’t,' Dorian shook his head as if begging him to deny it and hoping he wouldn’t.

'I need to sit down.'Argent groped for the chair across from his desk and settled his hulking frame into it.

'I need a drink.' Ash went to the sideboard next to the door. Dorian stayed where he was, staring at Morley.

'You deflowered a Baron’s daughter, no, a Commissioner’s daughter—your boss’s daughter—before her wedding and got her to pay you for it? Christ, Morley, I’ve misjudged you all this time. Color me bloody impressed.'” (84)

Did I tell you that I’m in love with all four of them? And Morley hasn’t even told them the big news yet. And then he does. And he knows what he has to do. He goes to Prudence.

Dear Lord, she’s locked in a cell, still covered in blood. And Morley starts to wash her fiancé’s blood from her hands in a curiously erotic manner, while he’s trying to get the “truth” from her. And she doesn’t like that. Morley explains that he’s trying to formulate a defense for her and Pru, who has grown one hell of a backbone since that night at the Miss Henrietta’s, counters:

“’I don’t need a defense,’ she said through her teeth. ‘I need someone to believe me. And do you know what else I need? A husband. I needed George’s protection for the child you and I made together. Because you left me that night. You left me without even a name.’” (94)

(Preach, girl!)

Morley handles this badly, and tries to hurt her with what he says is the reality of the night—it was just sex and it meant nothing, but Pru ain’t taking that shit from him. Oh, he thought she was going to make demands and reveal the secret, but Pru just tells him how badly she wanted to find him after that night. And Morley, holy God, Morley, if you could look in the dictionary for the definition of what not to say to the woman you impregnated while she is trying to convince you she didn’t kill her lover, you’d find his picture. He goes on about how he raised himself from nothing, and how he trained himself to act like the high-born denizens of the city:

“’But I trained myself to act like them. To look and speak and dress like them. And now . . . I police them all. The entire city. And one of their own will be my wife.’

She put her hands to her eyes. ‘Tell me you are not engaged.’

He dropped the cloth into the bucket and stood. ‘Don’t be obtuse, I obviously meant you.’

‘What! Absolutely not!’” (96)

Yeah, Pru, too late. And sure, you don’t think your father will approve, since he planned for you to marry an Earl, not a penniless public servant, but it’s Carlton bloody Morley. Guess what? He approved and in the blink of an eye, you are Prudence Agatha Morley.

So now we get into the meat of the story: WHO KILLED GEORGE? And I’m not telling you more than, hell no, it wasn’t Prudence. So I will have to abandon you here to finish the book and find out for yourself. But I will touch on some other parts of this story that caused it to be my favorite historical romance novel ever.

For instance, we meet her other sisters. Honoria is a cold fish (to be fair, she’s got her own demons, which we will explore in the second book in the series); we’ve seen enough of her and she won’t return for a while. The twins Mercy and Felicity are a treat. The first thing Felicity does is proclaim about her new brother-in-law: “’ . . . so many men are either elegant, or handsome, or extremely masculine, but the Chief Inspector somehow manages all three” reminding Pru that when she met him in the garden, “he’d been a savage in a bespoke suit.” I told you KB has a gift with words.

Her mother is snobby and confused as to why Morley has such a fashionable townhouse in Mayfair if he’s just a policeman (ah, she has no clue). Hell, Pru herself comes out and asks if he’s depending on her dowry to keep them (he’s not, and refuses to touch it—the man has money AND pride). And thus, it begins. Pru’s cold and lonely existence without her husband. Because Morley doesn’t want to be around her. He is even having trouble calling her anything other than “Miss Goode,” for God’s sake. He’s working or being the Knight and she’s alone. She hasn’t even seen his bedroom and what the hell is he doing across the hall that is making so much noise? (Oh, Pru won’t let that stay a mystery for long; she finds and steals his keys and invades his private room, as any woman in her right mind would do.) She even meets Dorian and Farah, and is flabbergasted to hear Farah call him “Carlton,” something she doesn’t even do herself. Oh, Pru is jealous of Morley’s former love from years ago. But she learns that Farah is (1) a wonderful person who (2) loves her husband and family and (3) never really felt anything romantic for Morley (which we know from reading The Highwayman). There was no spark between them.  

I can’t totally abandon you quite yet, because I told you the intimate scenes in this book are fiery, and we only discussed their initial meeting, right? Well, it’s going to take a while because MORLEY. IS. SO. DAMNED. STUBBORN. But, oho, Pru has got some information to share with him and she’s sick of waiting at home for him to (not) show up. See, she and her sisters have been digging through Daddy’s study, and they think they may have found something to help Pru’s case, info that needs to go to the cops, so it’s off to Whitehall to bust into her husband's office and make him listen. She meets the men who work under him and she sees how they respect and revere him, and how he much he cares for them. He finally herds them all out of the office and they’re alone. For the first time in a while. He’s holding strong. I’m impressed. But, oh, even though Prudence was irritated before, she sees her husband and she wants him. And she tells him (about time).

“’I want you, husband. Through everything, that’s never changed. Given the chance, I would make myriad different choices over the past three months, but not that one. I cannot bring myself to regret giving myself to you . . . having you . . . ” (170) And that’s all it took. In a minute, he’s dragging her through the offices and barricading themselves in an old, dusty, unused storeroom, and “all pretense of the civilized Chief Inspector melted away beneath the heat exploding between them.” Sigh. Finally. These two still haven’t had sex in a bed, but an old desk works just as well, cuz it is hot. Morley from the garden is back and he’s collecting orgasms like Halloween candy. 🍬 The dialogue here is hot as blazes. You won’t be disappointed. Oh but, PRU WHY DO YOU HAVE TO KEEP TALKING BECAUSE YOU WILL EVENTUALLY SAY THE WRONG . . . damn, too late. She mentions love and the Chief Inspector is back and cold as ice. But she’s not going to let him close down, and gets him to admit that their relationship isn’t empty: “’This . . . isn’t nothing,’ he ceded. ‘That is what makes it dangerous.’” 💙 Because as much as he tries to deny it, he is, in fact, falling in love, and we’re gonna have our HEA (though there’s always gonna be drama with the Goode girls, so he’d better prepare for it).

There’s one slight problem, he still thinks she might have killed her fiancé. Sigh. Finally, Blackwell has to have a come-to-Jesus with Morley, “’I know killers, Morley. I am one. You are one. We can sense each other, I think. Surely you already know she is not.’” (213) Good man, Blackwell, you probably saved his marriage. He goes to her on his knees and this last sex scene is not just hot, it’s sweet. Because finally, it’s how it should be. “As if he’d always been made for her. The key to her lock.” (222)

Yeah, there’s still a killer on the loose, but read the book and you’ll know who did it! But no worries, Deadeye Morley will get his killer. Because once Morley’s beast is unleashed, it’s no holds barred:

“Men like Argent. They owned their darkness. They wore it on their skin. He’d always had to hide his behind a badge of gold Or a black mask. He had to pretend the darkness wasn’t there. Waiting. Breeding. Growing.” (236)

Some more spoiler-y things

Yeah, we do get our HEA. And there’s nobody better for Morley than Pru. There’s an epilogue (which always makes me happy). Morley is immortalized in a Knight of Shadows Penny Dreadful, and Pru is reading it while he lounges against her very pregnant belly. Pru asks if they can name one of the babies after his sister Caroline. Guess what, they’re having twins (which is sort of a given since he’s a twin and she has sisters who are twins). But it made me so happy; Morley is looking forward to being a dad (the mysterious room was a nursery that he was kitting out for his bambino).

❌ There’s one typo, page 171, “lose” instead of “loose.” Sadly, it’s in the middle of a rockin’ sex scene.

Now we are ready to continue with our Goode girls journey; it's big sister Honoria, who has been through some shit in this book (read it), but may have found her savior. Next up, Courting Trouble.