Innocence? Ignorance? Sometimes it’s hard to know which is more dangerous. When young heiress Jane Hervey arrives in Cornwall in 1861 she is completely ignorant of the double standards that governed Victorian public and private life. This is the story of her unwitting discovery of the facts of life – and love – and how it changes everything and everyone in her circle. When this book was published by St Martin's Press in New York and Piatkus in London, in 1989, it attracted the following notices:
* A carefully wrought novel of character. Macdonald pens a delicate, almost dreamy tale of a woman who is determined to find her own way while still maintaining an accepted place in a society that keeps “respectable” women on a tight rein — Publishers Weekly
* Admirers of Macdonald's portly, likable historical romances [will find this] a solid romance, rich in delightful young women, a bitter-sweet humor, scenes of Cornish coasts, gossipy drawing rooms and boudoirs, and an enchanting heroine — Kirkus
And—of Macdonald himself:
*He is every bit as bad as Dickens – Martin Seymour-Smith