cover image By Honour Bound

By Honour Bound

Valerie Gray. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-312-02174-0

Some of the characters from this author's first Regency, A Spy at the Gate , are again busily engaged in entanglements and disentanglements of a romantic nature. Ann Fairleigh has fled her home to live in Lyme Regis under an assumed name, attempting to escape the attentions of Simon Pontefract, the man to whom her dying father entrusted Ann and her fortune. The period trappings and etiquette are familiar: Ann is attracted to Sir Mortimer Vane, a scarred hero of the Peninsular Wars, but believes he still bears a tendre for an earlier love. Meanwhile, Pontefract, who has tracked Ann down, is seized by another heiress, an unassuming, good friend of Ann's. In addition to the two pivotal couples, family members (one known for her Gothic novels), conspire in the matchmaking plot. A testy heroine and a stiff-necked hero surmount all obstacles to their final embrace. (Dec.)