The Courteous Cad

‘The Courteous Cad’ by Catherine Palmer is a Christian historical romance set in England during 1817. This is the third book in the Miss Pickworth Series, but you don’t need to read the other books to appreciate this book.

Miss Prudence Watson is the third daughter to her deceased parents. The oldest sister is married and happy. The middle sister, Mrs. Mary Heathhill, is widowed and grieving her beloved husband. Prudence and Mary are traveling through Yorkshire, while trying to raise their spirits. Prudence has recently suffered a broken heart and is trying to forget about him. He was an American blacksmith with no money to his name. He deemed that a relationship between them wouldn’t work, so he said good-bye and left. She now feels that she will never marry, for she will never get over her broken heart. Although her sisters are determined to marry her off to someone.

William Sherbourne is a former Royal Navy officer and the third son to the former Lord Thorne. Now that William has returned home from the war, he has returned to Thorne Lodge to live with his brother and his wife, Randalph and Olivia, the current Lord and Lady Thorne. William comes across Miss Watson in town and is smitten. But due to secrets that he carries, he doesn’t believe that the evil that he’s committed can be forgiven. He decides that the only way to keep Miss Watson away from him (so he can’t fall in love with her) is to make her angry enough at him to drive her out of town and back to London where she lives.

Prudence is intrigued and repulsed by William. He has quite the charming or lashing tongue, depending on his mood. Then she finds that his worsted mill (where they make cloth) has deplorable conditions and the children are being abused and injured. She feels that God has called her to champion the workers there. She goes to see the mill for herself and ends up making quite a scene with William before all the workers. After that, she feels that she hates him, and he has a black heart. She quickly puts into place another plan to help the workers, which in the end may end up backfiring on her.

Miss Pickworth is the pen name of someone in society who writes about the nobility in a column the newspaper titled The Tattler. Prudence comes upon some information that might lead to the identity of who is actually writing Miss Pickworth’s column!

This is a wonderful book with fun and witty comments. Both characters have to deal with siblings that sometimes don’t want to take no for an answer and are forever trying to play matchmaker!