In one scene where he condescendingly asks her what he did to provoke her anger, I wanted to cheer when she cries out: When Matthew is rude to her – and he is frequently and insufferably rude – she sets him straight. A young woman with no great beauty and no dowry, she is entirely subject to the power of men – but she has made plans to escape their power if she ever has to. I truly enjoyed the character of Clarissa, a very strong heroine.
Clarissa agrees to the charade to stave off her tyrannical father’s wrath.
He will pretend to court her, and in the process she will correct his courting manners. His friends tell him that if he ever hopes to get a bride, he needs someone to teach him how to act. Matthew has never learned the social niceties of interacting with respectable women, mostly because he views them as being beneath his notice. Later, Matthew complains of her to his friends, who assure him that he might have had a chance if he weren’t so socially inept. In the angry exchange that follows, Matthew is contemptuous and arrogant and Clarissa comes within inches of slapping him. Obviously in haste to get it over with, he asks for her hand within moments of meeting her. Matthew Carstairs, Lord Langdon, blows his chance. Clarissa has misgivings, but reluctantly agrees to give Lord Langdon a chance.
Her father tells her that he has given Lord Langdon permission to court her, and threatens to kick her out of the house if she doesn’t accept him. She even has a contingency plan: rather than being forced to marry a man who doesn’t suit her, she will pawn her grandmother’s ring and become a governess, no matter what society might say. Lady Clarissa Denham is resolved to marry only a man she loves, in spite of her father’s attempts to make an eligible match for her. Lord Langdon’s Tutor by first-time Regency Romance author Laura Paquet stars a hero who really needs to be told where to get off, and a heroine who doesn’t hesitate to tell him.
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