This HaBO is from Julie, who is hoping to find this older romance:
Looking for a book I read possibly about 20 – 25 years ago.
It started with the hero and heroine on a train in England. She is headed to marry an old man who is still trying to get his heir. I do not remember what his royal rank is, and he is headed to the home of a distant relation who he is heir to. They met and have one incredible night on the train together. She marries the old man, but he is unable to bed her and dies a few dies later. No one knows the marriage was never consummated.
The hero shows up a few days after this; turns out he is the heir to the same man the heroine married. After about a month or so she faints and falls off a horse and the doc comes. Turns out she is pregnant from the night on the train, but of course, everyone else thinks the marriage is consummated and the old man will have an heir after all. The rest of the story is about how the hero and heroine handle all of this. If anyone can help that would be great.
Sound familiar to anyone?
I don’t know it, but I want to read this! Turns out unplanned pregnancy is a trope I didn’t know I needed more of!
Man, I don’t think I’ve read this one, but the plot sounds so familiar…
Omg I want to read this! At least, I want to read this and have the baby not be a girl, so the hero really is disinherited because of his own shenanigans, ooh and if she marries him she would lose her title and jointure and all that.
Not because I think people should be punished for having premarital sex, let’s be clear, but I would love love love for a historical romance that sets up a situation where the hero and heroine can’t get married to actually follow through on it, and still pull off a HEA.
sounds saucy
Nothing like searching for the HaBO and adding a half dozen other books to my TBR pile. Sigh…
I want to read this one too!
I don’t know this one, but I want it!
Signing up for this!
@kkw You’d have to figure out what would happen to any subsquent children, too!
Have you read Rumors that Ruined a Lady by Marguerite Kaye? I haven’t read it but from the reviews I read it sounds like you might enjoy it.
She faints and falls off a horse with no health effects? No broken noses or legs or concussion or similar? Is the horse standing still by a big pillow?
I NEED TO READ THIS
I swear I remember a discussion on sbtb about a meet cute on a train that either involved a billionaire or royalty / nobility.
cleo, there was Joanna Shupe’s recent Gilded Age novella Tycoon.
Getting in the must-find-out-what-this-is-so-i-can-read-it line!
I am obsessively trying to find this one now, especially because so many people are interested! @Julie (the OP)- any chance you have a few more details? It sounds like a historical but maybe not? I realized if there was a train it couldn’t be a regency but there aren’t too many one-night stands in historical that I can find.
In my research I did manage to max my kindle books budget for the month finding a whole bunch of great titles – so that’s a win!
has anyone considered a Christina Dodd? one of the first three Governess Novels sounds a little like this…
@kkw
I want to read this and have the baby not be a girl, so the hero really is disinherited because of his own shenanigans
Well then I must be eviller than you, because what I’d like is for the baby to be a girl, leading to the hero getting stuck with the title and no property to back it up (a scenario that would easily be possible in 19th-century England). Heh, heh.
I want to read this so I hope someone figures it out.
How fortunate she didn’t have a miscarriage when she fell off the horse.
And no one knows she is pregnant until this happens? Didn’t she notice that she skipped a period?
I actually posted this somewhere else hoping to find out the title.
Is it The Heritage by Francis Parkinson Keyes?
It was a challenge to find a description of The Heritage, but this sounds similar to HABO:
“This is one of my most favorite books. When I read it last a couple of weeks ago, it finally started to fall apart (paperback). But hardback copies are available used, so I was able to replace it easily. Here’s the story. A young American in Ireland to visit relatives falls in love with a beautiful young woman on a train. They consumate their sudden love on a Ferry boat, a leg of his jouney. She had never revealed her name. In the morning he finds her gone with no way of tracing her. He finds her under incredible circumstances, but burdened by her guilt over their illicit interlude, she refuses to acknowledge or return his love. When she is found to be pregnant, he is unable to claim his child. The author felt duty bound to include historical politics which is irrelevant to the plot. Filter (skim over) the political letters, and you have a delightful romance. Awesome.”
@ Nikki H
The Heritage by Frances Parkinson Keyes sounds like it might be the HaBO.!
If you look up The Kirkus review description of The Heritage it fits the HaBO almost perfectly:
“Spurred on by his Irish grandmother, Lady Susannah, Peter Bradford sets off to Ireland to be viewed by his childless uncle, the seventh Earl of Cloneen. While travelling the Irish Mail, Peter shares a compartment with a mysterious young beauty who obviously sports a fascinating history but isn’t telling. There’s plenty for everyone to tell that next night, however, after Peter and the Lady (Anne) celebrate a tumultous nuit d’amour on an overnight ferry. Off into the morning light goes Anne, carrying unbeknownst to her, a future bit of Boston within”
Talk about old school – published 1968
@Rebecca, eh, I can honestly say as the veteran of many involuntary dismounts, often over or into obstacles (some of them solid), the vast majority of falls off a horse result in nothing more than a bruised ego. So I wouldn’t find the heroine’s lack of injury to be surprising. 🙂
But sorry, have no clue to the HaBo.