Official Description:
Intrepid Isabella Swan leaves England to seek her destiny in the New World as an indentured servant. Little does she know her physical but temporary servitude would soon lead to another kind of servitude altogether. Not a BDSM fic, or even close to it.
I’ll admit it, I have a soft spot for historical fanfiction, and Lady Gwynedd is the best out there. You may have read her popular tale of the Wild West, The Mail Order Bride, its sequel, Bear Valley Ranch, or her Roman-period o/s, Stranger in a Strange Land. After a foray into the modern (Parma High), Lady G is back with Nightingale. This colonial-era piece pairs Bella, a seamstress’s apprentice who sells three years of her freedom in exchange for passage to the New World, with Edward, a member of the gentry who had been learning law from George Wythe until his politics became too revolutionary for Wythe.
The opening 4½ chapters focus on Bella’s situation in England, which leads her into indentured servitude and through her bumpy voyage across the Atlantic. In those chapters, we meet a few canon characters who Lady G manages to incorporate seamlessly with their Twilight characteristics while accurately weaving in colonial and pre-revolutionary history. James, a member of the ship’s crew, wastes no time showing his true, dastardly colors; Emmett, the ship’s third officer, befriends Bella and protects her from James and other dangers on the high sea.
He turned to another crewman who was standing nearby, “‘Vast, James! Look lively, man. Come here and run this list. I have other work to do.”
A smirking, greasy looking sailor sauntered over and looked Bella up and down in a most forward manner. Bella’s new protector scowled at him, “Mind your manners, cockerel.”
James pulled his forelock and dipped his head, never once removing the leer from his face, “Morning, ma’am.”
Bella nodded tersely at him and then turned to the Third Officer and said, “Please, sir, I’ve no wish to be a burthen to you.”
Shaking his head, he bowed, “No protégé of Mrs. Cheney’s would ever be a burden to me. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Emmett McCarty of Annapolis, Maryland at your service, miss.”
During those early chapters, we also learn Bella is rather enterprising, which comes in handy when she first encounters Edward. Expecting to meet Mistress Cullen who owns her papers, Bella instead comes face to face with a very hung-over, breeches-wearing Edward.
She was trying to decide if she should try to appear humble or haughty but when the door opened those thoughts were chased from her mind by pure astonishment. It wasn’t a servant who answered the door, nor a girl just old enough to come out to society. It wasn’t even a middle aged lady who could possibly be the mistress of the place. It was a man, a dandy of a man. He was tall and though his clothes looked as though he had slept in them, they were of the finest quality.
Bella couldn’t help but note how his white stockings and black breeches set off his figure. His black waistcoat was undone and his stock hung loosely around his neck over his white shirt. She saw that his hair wasn’t powdered as was the style of the times but was a riot of reddish-brown, almost bronze-looking curls. His face was god-like with a well defined jaw and chin and noble nose. But it was his eyes that made all cogent thought leave Bella’s brain. They were a deep piercing green and quite the handsomest pair she had ever seen.
Annoyed at being awoken, Edward informs Bella his aunt is dead and that he doesn’t have need for a seamstress. After taking a quick mental inventory of the once-regal house, Bella, with the assistance of Jasper who takes an immediate liking to her feisty attitude (and sound argument), convinces Edward she be allowed a test run as his housekeeper. Reluctantly, Edward agrees. Bella doesn’t waste a moment, managing to far surpass his low expectations.
Edward becomes fascinated with Bella, a fact that doesn’t go unnoticed by his mother, who assumes Bella will use her position as the housekeeper to the single son of a wealthy man to her advantage.
Esme took a sip of her tea, apparently cogitating upon Edward’s situation. “Does she seem a fit person? I am sure she’s close to her middle ages being a skilled seamstress as she is.”
Merry Jasper said, “No, she’s no more than one and twenty I would say, and she has a neat figure. She cleaned up well after she got the stench of the ship off of her.”
In addition to his ears, Edward’s cheeks now were bright red and all sorts of alarms went off in his mother’s mind. She’d bet her next year’s wardrobe that there was something about this little seamstress that caught her son’s interest, and that made the woman and the situation dangerous.
Class issues underscore the whole story – servant vs. master; poor vs. wealthy; common man vs. bourgeois. It makes the reader wonder, though, how in the hell Lady G will balance their inequalities so these two pesky kids can declare their love and have their HEA? Without giving too much away, it’s not lost on Edward that his family is upwardly mobile and hasn’t always been a member of the aristocracy.
It’s easy to succumb to the wishes of readers clamoring for lemons, but Lady G refuses to pander. She maintains historical accuracy in actions, words, and descriptions (no anachronisms here). I love that this story has UST up the wazoo as a result! Lady G builds it perfectly; we don’t have a “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” moment from the instant Edward and Bella meet, nor does she force us to wait forever for something to happen between our lovers.
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