Rake's Progress: HFTS4

Read Rake's Progress: HFTS4 Storyline:

The newest master of 67 Clarges Street--that good address in London’s fashionable Mayfair--is a single gentleman, the handsome, rich, and notorious rake Lord Guy Carlton. After years of fighting in the wars against Napoleon, the dashing lord is determined to kick up his heels with wine, women, and song, undeterred by appalled reaction. Never before have the Clarges Street servants earned so much money or eaten so well, but their pleasure-loving master seems liable to die of dissipation. In desperation, the staff, led by the witty and resourceful butler, Rainbird, sets out to find a “good woman” who can calm the lord’s boisterous spirit and save his black soul. Their search ends with the discovery of Miss Esther Jones of Berkely Square, a prim and righteous woman who seems the perfect reformer. But complications lie ahead as the servants’ ingenious scheme creates warmhearted chaos both above and below the stairs at 67 Clarges Street, and no one, not even Miss Jones herself, is prepared for the transformation that ultimately takes place.
### From Publishers Weekly
The fourth volume in Chesney's Regency romance series (A House for the Season pits the libertine renters of the seasonal house on Clarges Street against a beautiful but moralistic spinster in a nearby residence. Followers of the series are acquainted with the colorful retainers, led by the butler Rainbird, who constitute the below-stairs "family," and who cope with the antics of their ever-changing employers. This time, rich, womanizing Lord Guy Carlton and his buddy, bent on erasing memories of their experiences in the Napoleonic wars, throw wild parties in the house. The butler disapproves but sees an opportunity for "a good woman to reform a rake" by bringing together the dissipating lord and Miss Esther Jones, a prim beauty who keeps an open Bible on display in her forbidding parlor. Predictably, the reformer's role is reversed; Esther succumbs to the now erstwhile rake, as Chesney once again adroitly manipulates the floating upstairs population that keeps the downstairs on its toes. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
### From Library Journal
In this fourth volume of a series of six, "A House for the Season," all the elements for a good Regency finally come together. The house at 67 Clarges Street and its domestic staff serves as the linking entity of the series. Rainbird, the butler, heads a motley crew of servants. They have banded together as a family; their aim in life is to buy a pub and leave service behind. Into this menage comes Lord Guy Carlton, invalided home from the Napoleonic Wars. Lots of wine and women are the order of the day for this young buck of the ton. At 120 Berkeley Square resides Miss Esther Jones, repressed spinster of 26, with her young brother and sister. Rainbird et al. connive to bring together this unlikely pair. Add a mistaken identity for my lord's foreign valet and this is a witty, charming, touching bit of Regency froth. Highly recommended. Paula M. Zieselman, Sarah Lawrence Coll. Lib., Bronxville, Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.