The Uncertain Heart Synopsis
Rebecca Marie Louise Blackand Louise Rebecca Marie Tracy meet in an orphanage in Hampshire, England, in the year 1800. Because of the similarity of names, they vow to be best friends forever, as only six-year-olds can. This friendship continues until, in 1812 at the age of 18, they leave the orphanage to pursue life in London. Both Rebecca and Louise believe there is a third girl who shares their names.
The Duchess of Dorchester, patroness of the orphanage, gives the girls a firm foundation in biblical teaching. She also believes females will one day take their place in the workforce based on their aptitudes, and educates them accordingly. Under her persuasion, the orphanage solicitor agrees to employ Rebecca in his London office, albeit in a private room unseen by most people. The duchess also arranges a chaperon and living quarters for Rebecca and Louise.
Rebecca has resigned herself to being the businesswoman she believes the duchess desires, but in her heart, she only wants to love and be loved by a husband and children.
Within months of arrival in London, Rebecca encounters her destiny in the form of Edward John Carlisle Cecil, Earl of Shelburne. Her resemblance to someone he has known puzzles him and he determines to learn why.
Does he truly recognize her features, or is he merely charming her to gain his own ends? Rebecca wants answers to these questions because she does not know who she is either. This lack of knowledge is a driving force in her life.
Rebecca has an unwelcome encounter with a titled acquaintance of Shelburne resulting in her determination to avoid all titled gentlemen. Instead, she attempts to interest herself in a clerk who is enamored of her. Her attempt is a failure because the simple touch of Shelburne’s hand makes her forget anything and everything else.
Shelburne visits the Duchess of Dorchester in his effort to learn more about Rebecca. It is during her sharp interrogation of his interest that he suddenly, and to his surprise, blurts out he visualizes Rebecca as his countess.
Rebecca’s conscience forces her to admit she has lost her heart to Shelburne.
Shelburne and Rebecca continue their attempt to find someone who recognizes her features. They ride and drive in Hyde Park and in Green Park. It is in the latter that Rebecca sees an apparition identical to her in appearance. As she continues to see the apparition, sometimes in the presence of a man in regimentals, Rebecca becomes convinced this is an omen of her early death. With that conviction, she determines she cannot form a lasting relationship with any man because she cannot put him through the despair her early death would cause.
Unknown to Shelburne, the nobleman who accosted Rebecca is also the cause of upheaval at Whitehall, where Shelburne gives his assistance based on his Peninsula experience.
Rebecca’s fears of illegitimacy and an early death, Shelburne’s work at Whitehall and his concerns about Rebecca’s emotional stability are some of the obstacles which stand in the way of their growing love.
A precocious, abducted child, who resembles Rebecca at the same age, and a fortnight stay at a country house add both uncertainty and impetus to their courtship. The nobleman/traitor finds Rebecca near the country house, and Shelburne again must deal with him.
Disturbed by Shelburne’s possible misalliance, his mother solves the mystery of Rebecca’s identity. Because of their striking resemblance to their mothers, her daughter Becca’s childhood friends, she identifies Rebecca as the granddaughter of the Duke of Amesbury who disowned his daughter when she eloped with a penniless army officer. She identifies Louise as the granddaughter of the Marquess of Granville, and states that the third girl with the identical names is her own granddaughter, Marie Louise Rebecca Haverford. Shelburne can be excused because he is ten years younger than Becca and her friends.
Rebecca learns Green Park was her parents’ trysting place, and identifies the apparitions she had seen there. Becca assures Rebecca that her parents were, indeed, married.
With her legitimacy assured, and her heart no longer uncertain, Rebecca accepts Shelburne’s proposal, and he watches the haunting blue eyes fill with unrestrained love.
These are my primary sources:
King George III, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III
Mary Wollstonecraft, https://en.wikipedia.org > wiki >Mary Wollstonecraft
Hannah More, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_More
The Oxford English Dictionary, https://www.oed.com/
Melissa Lynn Jones, Thesaurus of Regency Slang & Idiomatic Phrases, The Beau Monde,
Sub of RWA, 1997.
Angela Sarge, Editor, The Regency Realm, The Beau Monde, Subchapter of RWA, 1995.
Sharon Laudermilk & Teresa L. Hamlin, The Regency Companion, Garland Press, 1989.
Carolly Erickson, Our Tempestuous Day (A History of Regency England), Robson Books, 1986.
Illustrated Guide to Country Towns and Villages of Britain, Readers Digest Association, 1985.
Brian Gardner, The East India Company, Dorset Press, 1971
Elizabeth Longford, Wellington, Vol. 1, The Years of the Sword, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publishing, 1969.
J. B. Priestley, The Prince of Pleasure and His Regency 1811–1820, Harper & Row, 1969.
G. M. Trevelyan, The History of England, Volume III, Book 1, From Utrecht to Waterloo,
Doubleday, 1952.
Arthur Bryant, The Age of Elegance 1812–1820, Harper, 1950.
Who is this girl with the Irish blue eyes?
Rebecca Marie Louise Black is enthralled by a stranger with emerald eyes whom she sees in passing on the street.
Edward John Carlisle Cecil, Tenth Earl of Shelburne, debonair man about Town, meets the gaze of a young woman with haunting blue eyes. His life forever changes in that instant.
Does he truly recognize her features, or is he merely charming her to gain his own ends?
Rebecca wants answers to these questions because she doesn’t know who she is either.
The Napoleonic War in Spain, a traitor, apparitions in Green Park, and Society rules threaten Edward and Rebecca’s efforts to forge a future together in this thoroughly researched Regency era novel.
Linked in Peggy Lovelace Ellis.
Goodreads, Peggy Lovelace Ellis
ISBN: 979837472295
Cover Design: SelfPubBookCovers.com/dianecostanzastudio
This year, Peggy Lovelace Ellis celebrates fifty-one years as a writer and freelance editor. She continues both professions. She has published in many nationally-distributed magazines, had a regular column in the RPG Digest, ezine and print for 15 years, and published in the Divine Moments series, Merry Christmas Moments (2017), Christmas Stories (2020), and Broken Moments (2021). For four years, she produced and edited a 15-page monthly periodical for local readership. She compiled and edited three anthologies for her writers’ group: Challenges on the Home Front World War II (Chapel Hill Press, 2004; Second Edition, 2020), Lest the Colors Fade (Righter Books, 2008), and A Beautiful Life and Other Stories (Righter Books, 2010). Each contains her short fiction, memoirs, and research. She also published a book of her own short stories, Silver Shadows, Stories of Life in a Small Town (2021).