Desperate to get them off his back, he hits upon the idea of a marriage of convenience, but the woman he decides upon never shows up for their arranged meeting. She uses almost all of her money to travel to her latest job, only to learn that the lady she would have been working for has died and her services are no longer needed.Įver since his retirement from the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Charles Bright's older sisters have been hounding him, driving his servants crazy, trying to marry him off, and ordering awful furniture for his new home without his approval.

Since then, Sophie has been able to earn barely enough to provide for herself, by acting as a companion for elderly ladies.

Not long after her husband's suicide, Sophie's young son died because she was unable to earn enough to take him to a doctor when he fell ill. A few years earlier, her husband (who I believe had some sort of position in the Navy, although I can't remember what it was) hanged himself after he came under suspicion for something he swore he didn't do. Sarah Sophia Paul Daviess (I will call her Sophie from now on) is seriously down on her luck. The commentary, however, contains spoilers, so you might want to skip it if you have a problem with that sort of thing. I tried to keep the synopsis relatively spoiler-free.

The Lady's Companion by Carla Kelly