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di/tiiłgł/lezj’ &iifłwim

Carola Dunn

What a difference there is in the way our two young ladies vicw a summer spent at an isolated castle in Wales! To beautiful young Julia Langston, used to (lic doings of the ton, it is a dreary incarceration; her tathcr has banished her from London in the hope she will forgct her most unsuitable suitor, James Winn. Hut to Octavia Gray, her plumpish, rather plain iousin, just to be able to leave her busy home, where the bum of political discourse dominates all conver-sations, and sec the countryside for the first time, is an adventure.

At Cotehele are only Tavy's languid aunt, her sol len t ousin, and Julias once-rejected suitor whose nc*t proposal her parents hope will be accepted. Julia has no time for the engaging (and wealthy) Sir Tristram Deanbridge, however. To hercousins half-listening ears, Julia must eternally sing the praises of her beloved. The young man, a gentleman with-out tneans, is a political radical whose essays, if not hi* aitions, are fiery. An odd choice, indeed, for a du hard Torys butterfly daughter, but who can pre-dut where a heart might light?

(Xtavia, summoned to be company for Julia, di i Mi t havc an easy task. Julia wants her sympathy and her help in furthering the forbidden romance witli James. Sir Tristram looks to her for reassurance that his chances are still alive. And Octavia finds to het distress that —dare we tell?—she herself has a growing romantic interest in the delightful Sir It im I.IHI, although he, alas, is smitten by the unsar-tng Julu

I ■ i i" ’’ dl tlns, i lun .ire morc adventures for ¹¹ ni' 'i. ni uh n ■ I v .1 i hangi of scene Beforeshe

evenreaches the estate, she witnesses a smuggling raid atut mects a smuggler himself, one morę in-triguing than ominous. Shortly after her arrival, Julias maid tranforms her appearance quite aston-ishingly, and the stay continues to provide a series of cxciting adventures and misadventures that the most city-weary young women could wish for. There are searches by the Kings men, a fali into the sea (and rescue by the combined efforts of a group of smugglers and a pod of dolphins), secret rooms and passageways, a wounded fugitive to be hidden and nursed, and even a visit by a glittering party of the ton. And although it appears at times that there is no way for true love to win out, do not despair, dear reader. Read on with hope.