Bath Tangle

Bath Tangle

First edition
Author	Georgette Heyer
Cover artist	Arthur Barbosa
Language	English
Genre	Regency, Romance novel
Publisher	William Heinemann
Publication date	1955
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	320 pp

Bath Tangle is a Regency romance by Georgette Heyer. The story is set between 1815-16, although chiefly in the latter year, and relates how three ill-matched couples find happiness by exchanging partners. The novel was published in the UK in March 1955 by Heinemann and in August that year by Putnam in the US.

Plot

As a girl of 19, redheaded Serena Carlow, daughter of the 5th Earl of Spenborough, had won the heart of Hector Kirkby, a younger son with no prospects. Over the years, however, he rises to the rank of Major in the British army in Portugal during the Napoleonic wars and succeeds to his father's modest fortune. During that time, Serena became engaged to Ivo Barrasford, Marquess of Rotherham, whom she had known for many years, and had then caused scandal by withdrawing from the match shortly before they were to be married.

When she reaches the age of 25, Serena's father dies unexpectedly and is succeeded by his cousin. Following the funeral, Serena is shocked to learn that, by the terms of her father's will, Rotherham has been appointed as the Trustee of her inheritance, with the power to approve or veto her future choice of marriage partner. This becomes the occasion of Serena demonstrating her formidable temper, although there is nothing she can do about it. Indeed, she has to retire to the dower house of Milverley Park, her former Gloucestershire home, along with her father’s young second wife, Fanny, who is Serena's junior but on close and friendly terms with her. In the following year, they move from their secluded existence there and hire a house in Laura Place, Bath.

In Bath Serena chances to encounter Hector again and the two become secretly engaged. A new acquaintance that Serena makes there is the wealthy widow Mrs Floore, a chatty and outrageously dressed "vulgarian", whose daughter Lady Laleham has married well and is now launching her 17-year-old daughter Emily as a debutante. News reaches Bath that Rotherham has become engaged to the inexperienced Emily, who soon arrives to stay with Mrs Floore so as to avoid the measles afflicting her younger siblings. It is immediately obvious to Fanny and Serena that she is terrified of her noble fiancé, but by now they have problems of their own. Serena has to hold herself seriously in check from quarrelling with her own colourless fiancé, while Hector has discovered that he has fallen in love with the more compatible Fanny.

For his part, Rotherham has no sooner sanctioned Serena's choice of future partner than he receives a furious visit from his undergraduate ward Gerard Monksleigh, who accuses his guardian of ruining his life by stealing his true love, Emily Laleham. The tangle is now complete but unravels soon afterwards. Gerard visits Emily in Bath and browbeats her into attempting to run away with him to Gretna Green. However, Serena and Mrs Floore's stepson, Mr Goring, riding overland together, overtake the couple's two-horse chaise in Gloucester, where Goring dismisses Gerard back to London and returns Emily to Mrs Floore's.

When Serena arrives in Bath, she finds an enraged Rotherham waiting to berate her for interference in his plans. His engagement to Emily was meant to cause Serena sorrow and he is now seeking to make Emily break her engagement with him. The quarrel is then transferred to Mrs Floore's house in Beaufort Square, where the ambitious Lady Laleham forces Emily into apologising to Rotherham. However, her grandmother enters to back Emily up in her reluctance to carry on the engagement, and Goring assures Emily that plenty of other men - himself for example - will still want to marry her despite her behaviour. This so relieves Rotherham that he tells Emily to keep the diamond ring she wishes to return to him, but to wear it on another finger.

Having earlier noticed that the closeness between Hector and Fanny leaves Serena free again, Rotherham returns to Laura Place and silences Serena's renewed attempt to quarrel with him in a rough embrace; he then solves the social dilemma of her not yet being out of mourning for her father by proposing to announce through the London Gazette that they have privately married and are now touring abroad.