A Scandalous Countess by Jo Beverley

Grade: B

passion rating: warm

In 1763, England passed a law fixing the minimum age for marriage at 16, with parental consent needed for anyone under 21. During the Georgian Period, the average age of marriage was 27. Teenage brides were anomalous. One can understand why when reading Jo Beverley’s latest novel, A Scandalous Countess. Her heroine, Georgia, is just twenty and after almost three years of marriage, a widow.

Georgie was an immature bride — she was wed to a neighbor three years her senior when she was 16 — and is an immature widow. Her husband was killed in a duel over what many believe was Georgie’s infidelity. She’s young, lovely, and after her year of mourning, desperate to regain her place in society. She’s too immature to live on her own — although under the law, she could — and yet she longs for the freedom she had while married. She wants a new husband, preferably one with a title and lots of money to buy the outrageous gowns for which she is known.

Lord Dracy has neither money nor an impressive title. He abruptly left the naval life he loved when his fribble of a cousin, the previous Lord Dracy, died after bankrupting the family holdings. Dracy has come to Devon and is trying to raise funds to rebuild his estate. One of the only things his cousin left was a fast filly named Cartagena. Dracy brings Cartagena to Georgia’s father’s estate, Herne, to race her against the Earl of Hernscroft’s famous bay mare, Fancy Free. The race is winner takes all — whoever wins gets both horses. Dracy wants to win but not to gain Fancy Free. He plans to ask the Earl to instead give him one of the Earl’s stud horses, a prize breeder named Gosling-go. Dracy wins the race but, when he sits down to talk about the trade — the Earl really doesn’t want to part with Fancy Free — Dracy is distressed to find that earlier in the week, Gosling-go had to be put down. The Earl then offers Dracy a trade for a different filly: his daughter. If Darcy marries the young widow, he’ll get her portion of twelve thousand pounds, cash in hand, the day he weds her. As the Earl points out, Dracy could buy a herd of stallions with that kind of blunt.

Dracy is shocked to hear the Earl’s proposal. The Earl points out that his daughter, who was wild when married (although faithful), is likely to return to her scandalous ways when she’s let loose on the ton again and would probably end up married to a “blackguard.” He’s looked into Dracy’s background, and feels Dracy is a trustworthy, solid man. The Earl laughs and says, “You’re the type she needs. A man of iron, used to command.” The Earl urges Dracy to take his offer; the Earl can keep his beloved horse, rid himself of a troublesome, scandalous daughter, and Dracy can wed and bed a gorgeous young girl and gain twelve thousand pounds.


Georgia knows nothing of her father’s offer and Dracy is sure she will reject him if he tries to court her. For starters, the right side of his face is horribly scarred from an awful burn — it’s the sort of disfigurement that discomfits most. He’s also aware of Georgia’s reputation for extravagance and doubts a penniless ex-sailor would have any appeal to her. Because Georgia is a widow, despite her youth and the fact that she lives under her father’s roof, she theoretically can marry whomever she chooses. Dracy doubts she’ll choose him but, he agrees to come to dine at Herne that night.


The two meet and Dracy is profoundly drawn to her beauty and her wit. She likes him but finds his ruined appearance hard to take. Furthermore, since she knows nothing of her father’s machinations, she doesn’t even think of him as a suitor for her. All she wants is to finally return to Town, snare a duke or two, and return to her carefree, feted life.

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