You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO request is from Katy, who is looking for a historical romance:
I am looking for a book that I read in the ’80s or possibly early ’90s. It was a historical, and the heroine was a bluestocking while the hero was a terribly spoiled rake.
I remember one of the early scenes depicted the hero walking drunkenly through the streets after a night of debauchery, when a door to a townhouse opens and he sees a beautiful woman descending the stairs. Being a drunken rake, he enters the house and begins walking up the stairs. The heroine, being awesome, pushes him down the stairs with her foot. Shenanigans ensure, including at some point I think the hero kidnapping the heroine onto a ship?
Please tell me I didn’t imagine this book…
I hope he redeems himself for being a drunken idiot. Oh…and the kidnapping.
I remember that scene. I think it was one of Marion Chesney’s books.
“Rake’s Progress” by Marion Chesney does have the kicking the hero down the stairs scene – I don’t remember whether or not there was a kidnapping.
This is definitely Marion Chesney, my favorite Regency author of all time. It is Rake’s Progress…there is a description of her slippered foot knocking him down the stairs and that he’s lucky he was so drunk because he didn’t get hurt falling down the stairs. There isn’t a kidnapping in this book, though there is a mystery with his valet and the hero does make the heroine get married to him by threatening her with a gun (as I type that, it doesn’t make the book sound too great). She also has two younger siblings. It’s a part of her series “A House for the Season.”
Apparently, she’s also published under the name M.C. Beaton if you have problems finding it: https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3ARake%27s+Progress+%28A+House+for+the+Season+Book+4%29&keywords=Rake%27s+Progress+%28A+House+for+the+Season+Book+4%29&ie=UTF8
Oh my gosh, I think you all are right… I’ve been looking for this book for years!
She’s written tons of books, and many of them are available on Scribd. I am definitely going to read this one!
I wanted to add, mainly because kicking a rake sounds really good right now!