In which we serialize Society Patroness Rachel Hyland’s first book in her Reading Heyer series, Reading Heyer: The Black Moth. Called “delicious” by Heyer expert Jennifer Kloester, it is a reading guide, critique and loving homage all in one. But mostly, it’s just a lot of fun. We hope you enjoy. Check back every Sunday for another installment, or find the book here.
CHAPTER V: HIS GRACE OF ANDOVER
We get, here, our first description of the chapter’s titular figure, this oh-so-wicked Tracy Belmanoir of whom we already know so much, and suspect yet more. His brother had previously implied there was something off-putting about his appearance, but we learn here of an arrestingly attractive man, thin-lips and hooded eyes counter-balanced by high cheekbones and aristocratic nostrils (whatever those might be).
Arrived at Wyncham, he visits with his sister, whom we know to be quite devoted to him—but how cold and formal were aristocratic families of centuries past! She’s paid special attention to her outfit and anxiously awaited his arrival since Andrew told her Tracy planned to call, and yet she greets the Duke with nothing more than outstretched hands, over which he actually bows.
Do you think they did that as kids? Wow, playtime sure must have been fun at the Belmanoir house.
Of course, Tracy has not come to see his sister merely to revel in courtly obeisance. He, it transpires, is actually on the same errand as Andrew. Though Dick had lent/given him a thousand pounds just days before, additional funds are needed, and Tracy is most put out to learn that Dick is not, in fact, the bottomless well of familial charity he had thought him to be since the old Earl’s death. (Yes, remember the Earl, Jack and Dick’s father? He just died and stuff. Sad.) Lavinia reveals in shrewish accents that it was not Dick who inherited the Wyncham lands and riches, however, but the banished Jack, and at Dick’s urging; he’d convinced his dying father to reinstate his wronged brother, and… wait, are we supposed to be thinking Dick’s not so bad after all here? ’Cause, um, no.
Tracy is no more impressed than us at this news – but for a different reason – although he is not unamused. (“To think of the worthy Richard so neatly overturning all my plans!”) And, aha! It all begins to make sense.
Knowing he could never have used our good Lord Jack as a Georgian-era ATM, Tracy proved himself to be very devilish indeed when he had then schemed to disgrace the elder Carstares and have his sister wed the younger, who might thence be more easily manipulated or blackmailed, and who would presumably also be the new heir to the substantial Wyncham fortune.
Seriously, the selfishness of these Belmanoirs knows no bounds. Really. Just ask them. (Of which, more anon.)
In the end, and after discussing direfully their family finances and the lamentable continued existence of brother Bob (“I hate Robert!” declares Lady Lavinia crossly. “I wish he might die!”), it is decided that, pending Dick’s approval, Lavinia will return with Tracy to their childhood home, there to act as his hostess at a series of parties of the kind she has so been craving. Now, it might seem to us that a man come begging for five hundred pounds from his brother-in-law to cover some debt or other would then be unwise to start talking of the lavish entertainments he plans to throw and for which he requires a hostess, but… no, it really is unwise.
Or just astonishingly arrogant. So, yeah. Very Tracy.
Pouting and cajoling, Lavinia gets her way, and we are left with the distinct impression that Richard will go ahead and hand over that five hundred quid this Devil Belmanoir was after… and probably a lot more besides.
THOUGHTS
These damned Belmanoirs. They are like the Jessica Rabbits of this historical idyll: they claim they’re not bad, they’re just drawn that way.
Quoth Lavinia, in Chapter IV:
“I cannot live without gaiety–you know I cannot. Oh, I do not doubt but what I am very selfish, but ’tis the way I am fashioned, and I cannot change my nature.”
She goes on:
“We Belmanoirs–as God made us, so we are–and He made us spendthrift, and pleasure-loving, and mad!”
Because God is notorious for taking a hand in such things, of course.
Then Lord Andrew joined the self-justifying pity party, claiming its all in the genes:
“I tell you, Dick, what with the racing, and the cards, and the bottle, I shall be a ruined man before you can turn round! And the pother is I’ll never be any different. ‘Tis in the blood, so where’s the use in trying?”
Well, they do say the first step is admitting you have a problem…
And here, even Tracy sings a verse or two of “Our Family, Right or Wrong,” most notably with:
“My dear Lavinia, like all Belmanoirs, you care first for yourself and secondly for the man who masters you.”
Myriad problems lie in this sentence. For a start, I am just not buying that this entire family of ne’er do wells would not have benefited from a few stints in the naughty corner, and perhaps a year or two with a 17th-century version of the Peace Corps. I think there is a lot to be said for Nature, but Nurture is also a powerful force, and saying you can’t help being an egocentric wastrel because you’re a Belmanoir is like claiming a vicious temper is tied to having red hair or that poor eyesight automatically makes people smart.
Another issue I have with this claim, though? “All Belmanoirs” care secondly for “the man who masters [them]”? Let’s examine that, shall we? Does this mean Tracy is gay? That all Belmanoir men are gay? Or is it just that they would become completely devoted to a guy if he, say, beat him in a duel? Should it perhaps have read “… like all Belmanoir women and same-sex orientated men…”?
(You know what: if Tracy were to have been revealed as gay in this book? Awesome! But, alas, it is not to be. Indeed, there are no openly gay characters in Heyer, sad to say… although, there are a whole lot of “confirmed bachelors,” some of whom express a disdain for women bordering on the gangsta rap-esque, and they are all very finicky about their clothing and hair. Hmm.)
It’s just a weird sentence, I think.
Meanwhile, I totally want to read a gay Regency romance now. Some surely exist somewhere. I intend to find out.
New chapters of Reading Heyer: The Black Moth will be posted here each Sunday.