Beyond Scandal

Anne St. Georges may be Marchioness of Waverly, Countess of Campton and Highglow, Baroness of Feldstone, Viscountess of Lyons and one day Duchess of Rutherford--but she is not happy. Four years earlier, Dominick St. Georges compromised her in a garden, married her and then left his unconsummated marriage to travel, raise horses and entertain assorted mistresses. Anne, derided as an American adventuress and shunned by society, has lived a quiet life managing her husband's estate and making friends with his grandfather, the powerful Duke of Rutherford, who actually engineered the match. When Dom returns home for his father's funeral, he sees how well Anne has developed and naturally decides to stay. Will she have him? With interminable heaving of her (small) breasts, Joyce's heroine vacillates passionately and unendingly. Someone is understandably trying to kill her. Could it be Dom? Or perhaps the beautiful, buxom Felicity, whom Dom jilted? Or Felicity's brother Patrick, who supposedly loves Anne but is in the throes of an emotional crisis? And who is trying to frame Dom for the murder of his father's male lover? This heavy-handed, sexual melodrama set in Victorian England is weighted down by a supposedly sensible heroine who is in fact perpetually overwrought and denser than a hedge. (Oct.)