Guileless
Antonia Gibson has been educated in the manner of most young women of the 19th century, to be good wives and not much else. By all accounts she is silly, trivial, and unpossessed of a mind of her own (rather a good thing, by her father’s estimation). It is these qualities that keep her silent when her father and equally overbearing brothers contrive to manipulate her into an engagement with a gentleman for whom she can summon no sufficiently warm feelings. Meanwhile, brother Tom, having been expelled from Cambridge, has hired a lawyer to help him in his efforts to contest the accusations laid against him and salvage his character. Antonia, however, is not entirely incapable of intelligent thought, and it may well be the young lawyer who discovers the fact. It is he who encourages Antonia to fight for her own happiness, but at what cost? Mr. Hale, after all, is no stranger to scandal, for a dark history looms behind his otherwise charming demeanor and threatens to destroy the happiness of all with all whom he comes in contact—perhaps none more so than Antonia herself.
(Available as ebook)
