Beauty Like the Night (Mass Market Paperback)

Helene is everything you want in a heroine. She is self-sufficient and a force to be reckoned with. But she is also mindful of her position as a governess and though rather a wild child at 17, she is quite different at 27. She returns to Chalcote Court and is reacquainted with a Camden Rutledge, Lord Treyhorn, her childhood cohort and first love. His young daughter, age 6, has not spoken in three years and is just the type of special child Helene has worked with for years. Camden, a widower, carries a world of responsibility on his shoulders. He also loves his daughter and wants the best for her. His staid personality conflicts with Helene's passionate nature and tension abounds each time they interact. Eventually even Cam cannot resist what his heart desires. The love scenes are sensual but not intense.

All the secondary characters are wonderful from the aging valet, to the angelic child Ariane. Bentley, Cam's brother, and Catherine, his sister, are so well fleshed out; they feel like family to the reader! And each is scheming to achieve ... what? (I'll leave you to read the book and find out!)

There are many stories in this one novel and you become thoroughly embroiled in each. And I just love a man who talks to his big ol' cat (Boadicea). I did not give this a 5 because of a rather distasteful incident involving Bentley and Helene - I didn't think it added to the story. But I still will recommend this highly - and I am off to find other Liz Carlyle books since this was my first, but definitely not my last!

Their father, the dissolute and lecherous Randolph "Randy" Rutledge is a notorious libertine who is quickly running his estate and family into ruin. When Cam was young, his father took a mistress whose daughter Helene became Cam's best friend. But as they grew to teenage, they became something more and Cam wound up compromising Helene. Helene's mother whisked her off to the Continent never to be heard from again breaking both teens' hearts.

It falls to Cam to drag the family back from the brink of financial ruin and he does so by marrying the malevolent, but wealthy Cassandra. The marriage is torture but ends several years later with Cassandra's death and leaves Cam with a daughter who cannot or will not speak. After his father dies (while debauching the governess) Cam hires a new governess - who turns out to be his long lost Helene! The shock of seeing one another again after all these years turns them both inside out and both realize that the attraction they felt so long ago is still very much alive. But what to do about it? He's an earl and she's a mere governess. Not to mention that Cam has made a verbal agreement to marry his cousin, Joan.

Meanwhile Helene is making good progress with Ariane and determines that there is nothing physically wrong with her - that the child has suffered some sort of trauma that has caused her to keep silent. During her years on the Continent Helene studied the controversial subject of psychological disorders and feels confident that she can reach Ariane. But perhaps someone does not want Ariane to speak for fear of what she might reveal!

There's lots of emotional angst here, between Cam and Helene, between Cam and Bentley (that boy is such a lost soul!). There are also secrets to be revealed about Cam's late wife Cassandra, a shocking trip to Gretna for an unexpected couple and of course, will Ariane ever speak? A recommended read.