Reforming Lord Ragsdaleby Carla Kellyreviewed by Cheryl SneedOctober 1995, 224 pages, Publisher: Signet, ISBN: 0451184653 Back Cover Blurb: Emma Costello owed a debt of honor to one of the most dishonorable lords in the realm. The infamous Lord Ragsdale was as rich as sin, as sinful as he was rich, and as heartless as he was handsome. But he had saved Emma from a fate worse than death when he stopped a lecherous brute from buying her as an indentured servant.
It was Emma's turn now to save Lord Ragsdale from his wicked ways. She had to find a way to stop his drinking, his gaming, his wild revelry. She had to make him break with his mistress, the superbly sensual Fae Moulle, She had to make him a suitable suitor for the ideal wife that the prim and proper Lady Clarissa Partridge would be. And above all, she had to keep his lustful eye from lingering too long on herself - even as she struggled to keep her own growing desire from undoing all her hard work in the unmaking of this irresistible rake…
I delved into my Keeper Shelves the other day and came up with an old Carla Kelly Trad, Reforming Lord Ragsdale. It has been so many years since I've read it that it was almost like reading it for the first time - what a treat!
John, Lord Ragsdale, is slowly killing himself. Since he and his father, both soldiers, lost his eye and his life respectively in an Irish uprising, John has lost interest in most everything, save drinking and wenching. His estates are neglected, his relationships strained and he must be poured into his bed each night. Exertion is beyond him, but he must bestir himself, for he and his mother have been saddled with his young cousins from America - one bound for Oxford, the other for a London Season. To make things worse, they have with them an Irish indentured servant, Emma Costello. John loathes the Irish and behaves very badly toward Emma whenever he sees her.
Emma has her own reasons to hate the English. Through one of those horrible twists of fate, she and her family were arrested, some killed, some transported to Australia and herself shipped to Virginia on a seven year indenture. She dislikes John just as intensely as he does her, but something happens as all are on their way to Oxford. Her young master is an addicted gambler of the worst kind and, in a card game at an inn where they have stopped for the night, he puts Emma's indenture up for sale. This is something that even John with his loathing for the Irish cannot countenance and he gives two of his prime horses for her papers.
Emma now "belongs" to him, much as that horrifies them both. John cannot help but admire Emma's spine and will, her self-possession in the face of adversity. One evening as she is helping to put him to bed he says to her, "Reform me, Emma." Emma is determined to repay her debt to him and seizes the moment to have him sign a paper authorizing her to reform him in exchange for her release from indenture.
So begins a great battle of wills, where each discover that John isn't as bad a person as they both think he is - and Emma is not as good a person as they think, either. There are plenty of fits and starts, harsh words and unexpected acts of compassion as John and Emma realize that old hurts and prejudices cannot hold up in the face of a personal knowledge of "the enemy." It is a delicate task to move from legitimate grievance to redemption, but Kelly masterfully walks that fine line, with some lovely and unexpected touches of humor thrown into the mix.
Reforming Lord Ragsdale is one of the classic Carla Kelly Trads that hasn't been reissued, so is very pricy to purchase (it is going at Amazon for $25-100), so I urge you to visit your local library to borrow a copy. It is a gem of a book - you won't be sorry.
Reviewed by Cheryl Sneed, January 19, 2010
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