Elis Madison's Reviews > The Runaway Duke

Rebecca is trying to save her sister from disaster (and get a little blackmail material) when she slips out to the garden in the wee hours to catch her trysting with Edelston, the fortune hunter. Unfortunately, all cats look alike in the dark. So when her father sees Lorelei sneaking out into the night and follows, and when the gardener sees a man skulking in the shrubbery, it's her father who gets brained, and Rebecca who ends up caught in Edelston's arms.

And Edelston really isn't a nice guy. In fact he plans to arrange an accident for Rebecca once her handsome dowry is secured—that is until she decks him. Then he's all…



Rebecca's parents tell her that she has an obligation to marry Edelston even though he's a fortune-hunting schmuck. She owes it to her younger sister (the one who got her in this fix to start with), since a scandal in the family will prevent Lorelei from making the "right" connections for a "famous" match.

Rebecca's keen to shirk this responsibility, so she turns to her father's groom, Connor Riordan



He agrees to help her. As you might suspect from the book title, Connor is no stranger to shirking responsibilities himself. So the two of them shirk together, run off with gypsies, etc. Right before they run, though, Rebecca goes through the pockets of a coat in her father's library and snags out whatever she can find of value, including a pound note and a locket.

The next thing they know they're being followed… and then someone wants to kill Connor.

It's not as mysterious as it sounds since we know whodunit and why but it's a decent adventure complete with some misapprehensions and broken hearts... 4 stars.