The heart has its reasons - Mary Brown (First edition; Historical Duo #2)

This edition first published in 1992 by Hutchinson.

‘Only now did I realize how completely I had been duped. The man who held me helpless, the Comte Armand Marc Phillipe de la Tour, was the same man who had rescued me this morning, the man who had passed himself off as a servant, who had got me drunk and wheedled from me the family secrets. I would have spat at him if my mouth hadn’t been dry with fear.

He shook me lightly. “And so I think I will marry Aimée… What do you say, Monkey-Face?” ’

Betrothed at fourteen, Aimée Claire was the youngest daughter of the Marquis de Villeneuve, an impoverished minor aristocrat from the provinces, more interested in his clock collection than his three daughters.

Aimée had dreamed that romantic love was accompanied by mystery, moonlight and music. She was in for a brutal surprise. She also fantasised that the slogan ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ might mean a better world…

Bitter experience would teach her a very different lesson, one which would reveal the things that were of value and the true nature of love.

Mary Brown’s first novel, Playing The Jack received great praise for its exuberant and romantic storytelling. The Heart Has Its Reasons, set in the same period surrounding the French Revolution, involves some of the characters from the first book. And once again, Mary Brown has created a heroine, whose passion, vulnerability and resilience make her unforgettable.