Devil’s Cub

Excerpt from Chapter One

There was only one occupant of the coach, a gentleman who sprawled very much at his ease, with his legs stretched out before him, and his hands dug deep in the capacious pockets of his greatcoat. While the coach rattled over the cobbled streets of the town, the light from an occasional lantern or flambeau momentarily lit the interior of the vehicle and made a diamond pin or a pair of very large shoe-buckles flash, but since the gentleman lounging in the coach wore his gold-edged hat tilted low over his eyes, his face remained in shadow.

The coach was travelling fast, too fast for safety in a London street, and it soon drew out of the town, past the turnpike, on to Hounslow Heath. A faint moonlight showed the road to the coachman on the box, but so dimly that the groom beside him, who had been restive since the carriage drew out of St James's, gasped presently, as though he could no longer keep back the words: 'Lord! you'll overturn us! It's a wicked pace!'

The only answer vouchsafed was a shrug, and a somewhat derisive laugh. The coach swayed precariously over a rough stretch of ground, and the groom, clutching the seat with both hands, said angrily: 'You're mad! D'you think the devil's on your heels, man? Doesn't he care? Or is he drunk?'

The backward jerk of his head seemed to indicate that he was speaking of the man inside the coach.

'When you've been in his service a week you won't call this a wicked pace,' replied the coachman. 'When Vidal travels, he travels swift, d'ye see?'
'He's drunk — three parts asleep!' the groom said.
'Not he.'

Yet the man inside the coach might well have been asleep for all the sign of life he gave. His long body swayed easily with the lurch of the coach, his chin was sunk in the folds of his cravat, and not even the worst bumps in the road had the effect of making him so much as grasp the strap that swung beside him. His hands remained buried in his pockets, remained so even when a shot rang out and the vehicle came to a plunging standstill. But apparently he was awake, for he raised his head, yawning, and leaning it back against the cushions turned it slightly towards the off-window.

There was a good deal of commotion outside; a rough voice was raised; the coachman was cursing the groom for his tardiness in firing the heavy blunderbuss in his charge; and the horses were kicking and rearing.

Someone rode up to the door of the coach and thrust in the muzzle of a big pistol. The moonlight cast a head in silhouette, and a voice said: 'Hand over the pretties, my hearty!'
It did not seem as though the man inside the coach moved, but a gun spoke sharply, and a stabbing point of flame flashed in the darkness. The head and shoulders at the window vanished; there was the sound of a fall, of trampling hooves, of a startled shout, and the belated explosion of the blunderbuss.

The man in the coach drew his right hand out of his pocket at last. There was an elegant silver-mounted pistol in it, still smoking. The gentleman threw it on to the seat beside him, and crushed the charred and smouldering portion of his greatcoat between very long white fingers.

The door of the coach was pulled open, and the coachman jumped up on to the hastily let-down step. The lantern he held lit up the interior, and shone full into the face of the lounging man. It was a surprisingly young face, dark and extremely handsome, the curious vividness overlaid by an expression of restless boredom.

'Well?' said the gentleman coldly.
'Highwaymen, my lord. The new man being unused, so to say, to such doings, was late with the blunderbuss. There was three of them. They've made off — two of them, that is.'
'Well?' said the gentleman again.
The coachman seemed rather discomposed. 'You've killed the other, my lord.'
'Certainly,' said the gentleman. 'But I presume you have not opened the door to inform me of that.'
'Well, my lord — shan't we — do I — his brains are lying in the road, my lord. Do we leave him — like that?'
'My good fellow, are you suggesting that I should carry a footpad's corpse to my Lady Montacute's drum?'
'No, my lord,' the coachman said hesitatingly. 'Then — then — shall I drive on?'
'Of course drive on,' said the gentleman, faintly surprised.
'Very good, my lord,' the coachman said, and shut the door.
The groom on the box was still clasping the blunderbuss, and staring fascinated at the tumbled figure in the road. When the coachman climbed up on to the box again, and gathered the reins in his hands, he said: 'Gawd, ain't you going to do anything?'
'There isn't anything you can do for him,' replied the other grimly.
'His head's almost shot off !' shuddered the groom.
The equipage began to move forward. 'Hold your tongue, can't you? He's dead, and that's all there is to it.'
The groom licked his dry lips. 'But don't his lordship know?'
'Of course he knows. He don't make mistakes, not with the pistols.'
The groom drew a deep breath, thinking still of the dead man left to wallow in his blood. 'How old is he?' he blurted out presently.
'Twenty-four all but a month or two.'
'Twenty-four! and shoots his man and leaves the corpse as cool as you please! My Gawd!'
He did not speak again until the coach had arrived at its destination, and then he seemed to be so lost in meditation that he coachman had to nudge him sharply. He roused himself then and jumped off the box to open the coach door. As his master stepped languidly down, he looked covertly at him, trying to see some sign of agitation in his face. There was none. His lordship sauntered up the steps to the stone porch, and passed into the lighted hall.

'My Gawd!' said the groom again.
Inside the house two lackeys hovered about the late-comer to take his hat and coat.
There was another gentleman in the hall, just about to go up the wide stairway to the saloon. He was good-looking in a rather florid style, with very heavily-arched brows and a roving eye. His dress proclaimed the Macaroni, for he wore a short coat decorated with frog-buttons, fine striped breeches with bunches of strings at the knee, and a waistcoat hardly reaching below the waist. The frills of his shirt front stuck out at the top, and instead of the cravat, he displayed a very full handkerchief tied in a bow under his chin. On his head he wore an amazingly tall ladder-toupet, dusted with blue hair powder, and he carried in his hand a long tasselled cane.

He turned as my lord entered, and when he saw who it was, came across the hall. 'I hoped I was the last,' he complained.

Dominic Alistair, the Marquis of Vidal, has done it again... After engaging in a most dishonorable and unceremonious duel over cards, he is banished to France by his father, the Duke of Avon. His behavior of late has been more scandalous than usual and his latest transgressions coupled with his profligate behavior has caused his mother, Duchess Leonie, undue distress. Dominic, however, plans to enjoy his banishment by taking a mistress with him to France.

Mary Challoner, the older sister of Dominic latest coquette, thwarts her sister’s plan to runaway with Dominic by not informing her of Dominic’s intended time and place of departure. Mary, instead, devises her own scheme to prevent Dominic from ever pursuing such a clandestine and nefarious affair with her sister ever again. However, there is one slight glitch in our heroine’s plan... Mary is not aware of Dominic’s intended destination to France and unfortunately for her, it is no longer her sister Sophie’s reputation that needs saving, it is her own!

This is my very first Georgette Heyer novel. Her novels seem to be a little known secret and I am so happy to finally be in “the know.” Reading this novel was a delightful and lighthearted experience for me. I especially took pleasure in Georgette Heyer’s usage of verbal irony and dramatic irony, she is quite masterful at it! In addition, I found that Georgette Heyer is similar to Jane Austen in that they both create wonderful, realistic, and comedic characters. I loved the minor characters in this book. Justin, the Duke of Avon, a former rake before he married, is proud to see his son following in his footsteps, yet he finds it quite tiresome to be saving his son’s hide and reputation all the time. Leonie, Dominic’s mother, loves that her son takes after her fiery spirit and temper, and she often seems pleased by his wicked behavior! Dominic’s Aunt Fanny is a paradox; while professing her concern about how wicked Dominic is and how something should be done to save the family’s reputation, she is all the while secretly hoping he marries her daughter because it would be a most excellent match for her (sounds like Mrs. Bennet, doesn’t it?). Uncle Rupert (one of my favorite characters) is absolutely hysterical with his all-consuming concern over his next meal and obsession with good wine.

“Devil’s Cub” was an exciting and entertaining adventure complete with confusion, flaring tempers, a copious amount of chasing, and many misadventures. While I would have liked the love-story between the two main characters to be focused on a little more, I understand that the action of the story and many events that took place were important and required some page time. Nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed this lively and amusing Regency tale, and I am so very happy that I finally discovered the joy of reading Georgette Heyer. I look forward to reading her many other works! Furthermore, I understand that “Devil’s Cub” is the second book in a trilogy by Georgette Heyer; I cannot wait to get my hands on the other two books!!


Premise: Bored sprig of nobility meets someone who doesn’t bore him.

Cover: Gorgeous. Apprentice Writer has a weakness for covers showing detail of classical paintings. This one is perfect - she looks somewhat bemused, he’s commanding the situation (in velvet coat, lacy jabot, shiny boots, and faultless hair despite having travelled to this tete-a-tete(a-tete, if one includes all participants) by horse. Who looks just as curious as the lady in what the lordling will do next.

What Works: Apprentice Writer believes this is what is called a ’Comedy of Manners’. A huge amount of the story rests on the lengths to which people will go to preserve the appearance of social expectations, while seeing just how close to the edge they can skate in terms of not actually behaving accoridng to those expectations. There is a lot of scheming about arranging the setting and timing of one’s actions so as to force the hand someone else, and how to evade someone else’s efforts to force one’s hand. All very entertaining and somewhat exhausting-sounding for the reader, but AW supposes that people had to come up with some way to amuse themselves in the days before Twitter, Wii, and Youtube.

AW had some fun waiting to see how the author would make her come to like various characters she initially was not so sure about, most notably, the cub himself. Wildly indulged, extravagantly wealthy, insufferably competent and of course good-looking, Vidal spends most of his life proving to everybody (meaning his legendary father) that he Doesn’t Give A Damn. This doesn’t-give-a-damning reaches such intensity that he gets kicked out of the country. So, we have an egocentric spoiled only son, the mother who helped create the monster by hearing and seeing no wrong where he is concerned, and the father who likewise helped create the monster by being so legendary and, apparently, taunting his son with his pwn youthful exploits.

Good lord - what poor heroine would want to get entangled with such a family? Yet when she comes along, she holds her own magnificently, most notably in a scene that showed AW that one of her favorite authors, Ms. Loretta Chase, must be a Heyer devotee. The scene where Jessica demonstrates to Dain that she is decidedly unhappy about his treatment, impressing the hell out of him (fans know EXACTLY what this means) is one of AW’s favorite moments of her entire reading career - and seems to be a homage to a superb scene in this story. For that alone, this story is worth reading. But fear not; there are many other wonderful bits as well, not least, how the cub’s parents come around to making the reader like them after all.

What Doesn’t: Yes, there is a highway robbery scene, and yes, there is a duel. But these are very brief bits of action in what is essentially a lot of talking and sitting around. Inside houses, at gaming tables, in carriages, on boats, with bottles - but all, unarguably, sitting around. Readers who like action and variation of setting may feel numb after awhile. Though the story supposedly winds its way through such places as the English Channel and Paris, it could just as well have been across some loch and into the next village. The reader gains no real sense of the various settings, neither landscape nor people nor food nor weather. It’s all about the dialogue. Which is entertaining, and keeps changing up depending on who is in the scene, but it takes a certain type of reader to appreciate that, and readers who like more scene-setting and variation may find it wearing.

Overall: A wonderful read for those who love historical fiction, comedies of manners, and stories where it’s all about the banter that brings a pair of opposites together. With the beautiful cover, this would make a lovely gift for the holiday season.

BUT DOES IT MAKE YOU LAUGH? Yes!
This is Heyer at full force, with two generations of her memorable characters playing off each other. AW shall enjoy reading the prequel, ’These Old Shades’, the story of the cub’s parents’ more youthful days.

The world of DEVIL’S CUB teems with taboos, and temptations, sparkles with wit, and borders on the farcical at times, as the characters all scheme to get what they want. The chases in France are not to be missed—incomparable.

Men bent on partaking of all the vices available and mothers bent on marrying their daughters off to the man with the best title and most money regardless of his morals make DEVIL’S CUB a bubbling cauldron of maneuvering, machination, and mayhem.

Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal, flaunts his outrageous behavior with an air of invincibility. His fiery temper and caustic remarks are well known but few know how quickly he yields to his mother’s wishes or how he abides by his father’s judgment in important matters. His ability with pistols is legendary and his exploits with willing women are unsurpassed. His reputation rivals that of his father’s during the Duke of Avon’s rakish days—days before Leonie came into his life.

Mary Challoner, educated, intelligent, and not given to airs, despairs of her mother and sister Sophie’s scheme to make an advantageous marriage for Sophie who flaunts her beauty as she foolishly tries to out maneuver Dominic. Mary’s efforts to save her sister from ruin and to teach the high-handed Marquis a lesson makes herself a target for his fiery temper and gets her into a peck of trouble. She is trapped but picks her battles, uses her intelligence, and gains the grudging respect of Dominic who has never had a relationship with a woman that could carry on an intelligent and interesting conversation, could see logic, and was not forever flirting.

The many secondary characters add spice and variety to the main ingredients that make up the bubbling cauldron of DEVIL’S CUB. Each of them, so expertly developed by Ms. Heyer, plays distinct roles in moving the plot along.

Georgette Heyer’s story is a joy to read. It transports one to another time and teases the senses with exquisite description, compelling action, and captivating characters. The plot, an intricate maze, comes to a beautiful climax and leaves the reader SO SATISFIED.

Hooray for another fun-tabulous Georgette Heyer novel! This one is more Georgian than the typical Regency novels she wrote, but reads just as well. In Heyer’s Devil’s Cub, she brings to life the Lord Vidal, otherwise known as Dominic, who is yet another dashingly irresistible debonair gentleman that every blushing beauty would like to get her hands on. Some he happily obliges, but then he promptly walks away. This time, in typical Heyer tragical comedic fashion, Mary attempts to save her naive sister Sophia from Lord Vidal but in doing so, Mary threatens to ruin her own chances at a respectable future.

This is the second in the series of the Alastair trilogy (Heyer really liked these characters); the first book of the series, These Old Shades (1926), perhaps in fitting Heyer comedic fashion, arrived 26 hours too late at my doorstep, forcing me to read this series out of order. Once I had gotten thirty pages into Devil’s Cub, the arrival of These Old Shades wasn’t enough to deter me from this one. Let me stop right here and pronounce the fact that I am a Georgette Heyer fan (possibly upgradeable to junkie status). She is devilishly clever in her stories, and she makes me laugh (oh.. all right, except for once). I love the way she can take the same sense of a plot and make each of her books new and clever, illustrating how she expertly develops her characters. (I say this because the plot in The Convenient Marriage resembles this one somewhat.) Yet, Devil’s Cub was no exception to Heyer’s ability to breathe laughter and life into age old plots. For some reason in all the regency novels I’ve read, there is always the pressing need to find an eligible bachelor for the young girl who needs to get out of her mama’s house.

I couldn’t make up my mind, though, if I should loathe or love Vidal. Oddly enough, our heroine had the same conundrum. ’Strait-laced’ Mary knew what type of man he was, but of course that glitter in his eye made Mary wonder if there were more to him than just charm and arrogance. But I was getting a little unnerved at the fact that every time a pistol was near Vidal it invariably would go off. Murderer! (Dueling was still the rage then). Or, was he and his pistol always in the wrong place at the wrong time? And it is just this occasion that sends Vidal packing to Paris, fleeing England, but unbeknownst to him, he is bringing along Mary and not the silly Sophia. And hoity-toity Vidal gets his comeuppance and is shot by none other than Mary herself!!!

The melodramatics continue when all of the main characters and their family members collide in Dijon, where Mary consented to marry a Mr. Comyn as opposed to Lord Vidal, and more misunderstandings occur when the mom and dad (who are featured in These Old Shades) get into the middle of it. (Funny little side note was that the parson in Dijon that they were counting on doing the marrying would not do it for them anyway).

There were quite a lot of supporting characters in this one and many cousins and uncles for which I getting ready to draw a genealogical chart if one more relation was mentioned. I was getting confused! But that didn’t detract from the hilarious adventures and the witty dialogue that is seemingly typical Heyer traits. I loved this one, and can’t wait for my next Heyer romp.

Not wanting to give the rest of the plot away, and there is indeed a lot more that could be said, I’ll simply say that was another win for Georgette Heyer.. she is my go-to-gal when I need a pick-me-up and I am so happy to report that this one did just that. The sequel to Devil’s Cub is An Infamous Army.

If you are lucky, maybe you can find These Old Shades, Devil’s Cub, and An Infamous Army in the 2006 omnibus shown here:



Dominic has decided who wants to have as a lover. When he is exiled after losing a duel, he decides that he wants to take this woman with him. In the end, that woman’s sister, Mary, comes between them. Mary is a strong woman who will bend to no man. She even shoots Dominic when he gets a little too comfortable with her. Soon, Dominic’s family discovers that Mary is just what Dominic needs.

This was a very fun book that perfect for an afternoon of relaxation.

The "Devil’s Cub" is Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal, the son of the notorious Duke of Avon and his saucy French wife (who fell in love in These Old Shades). Dashingly handsome, Dominic is heir to his father’s self-indulgent nature and his mother’s fiery temper. He has been romancing a girl of modest means whom he has not the slightest intention of marrying.

Desperate to prevent her sister from being debauched, the usually sensible Mary Challoner sets in motion a risky scheme with the potential to destroy her own reputation. "She would need to act a part, a loathsome part, but if she could do it it would end the Marquis’s passion for Sophia as nothing else could." As humorous as it is romantic, Devil’s Cub builds to a merry madness of misunderstandings that threaten the hopes of hero, heroine and assorted friends and relatives before all is happily resolved.

The novel’s language reflects the period. Dominic is referred to as "the Marquis," "Vidal," "Alistair," or "Dominic," depending on the speaker’s relationship to him. Confusion is minimized, however, because Dominic’s vivid personality makes it unlikely the various names could refer to more than one such appallingly reckless yet attractive individual. Period details like wigs, face patches, coaches, gaming slang and aristocratic manners are used for comic effect and cunning plot twists.

Heyer is known for her Regency romances, but her early novels like Devil’s Cub, were set in the mid- to late-eighteenth-century Georgian period. The pleasure-loving Georgian noblemen are a more dangerous, devil-may-care bunch than those of the Regency period, gambling large sums, quick to propose a duel, ever eager to whisk a beauty of the common classes off to the Continent for a bit of licentious folly. The ladies, meanwhile, must remain vigilant against the danger of being "ruined," rendered unmarriageable by being known to have lingered overlong and unchaperoned in an unrelated man’s company. (1932; new Sourcebooks edition 2009, 310 pages)


Sourcebooks is re-releasing many of Georgette Heyer’s classic historical and Regency romances, and I was fortunate enough to receive one to review. Ms. Heyer was first published in her teens and is credited not only for revising the popularity of historical romance but creating the English Regency Romance. I have been reading historical romance for about thirty years and had never read anything by the Grand Dame of this genre until now; boy was I missing out!

The book I received was Devil’s Cub, copyright 1932. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it definitely has withstood the test of time. It appears to take place sometime between the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, as our hero and heroine travel from London to Paris and all over France.

Arrogant Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal spends his time gambling, driving his carriage too fast, dueling, and despoiling young women. He has set his eye on Sophia Challoner, a silly girl with good bloodlines, whose family has been cut off from their fortunes, and is encouraged in her romance by her foolish, greedy mother. Mary, her elder sister is not about to allow Sophia to ruin their family reputation, making things even more difficult than the simple but comfortable middle-class existence they currently enjoy. Through a series of intrigues and misunderstandings, Mary ends up on Lord Vidal’s yacht as he flees London after a badly played duel. Docking in Dieppe, France, Vidal begins to realize that Mary is not a silly miss like her sister while she nurses a wound she gave him with a rapier. Staying in their inn, the two begin to respect and like each other. While Mary is determined to find a job in France and make her own way in the world, Vidal has decided they must marry to protect her reputation. More characters and sub plots are introduced as family members from both sides follow the couple across the Channel, whether purposely or by happenstance. As this is a romance, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the conclusion of Mary and Vidal’s story.

Ms. Heyer has created an interesting, well-rounded character in Mary Challoner. In today’s historical romances, the heroine is usually educated, witty, bold; practically a woman of the 2010s, instead of the 1810s. Mary, while being educated and witty, is more subdued than a contemporary author may have written her, but still spunky and intelligent. Mary does not look for trouble, but is resourceful when it finds her, quickly putting together a plan to save her sister’s reputation, grabbing a rapier to defend her own, and pragmatically devises a way to support herself in a foreign land. I found Vidal much more difficult to get to know. As the book opens, I actually found him unappealing as a person, which is unusual. His disdain and disregard for anyone else, including his compatriots (I can’t call them friends) and family (other than his mother), were more than off-putting. I warmed to him as the story unfolded, but never felt like he truly opened to the reader, or to Mary. Vidal is the aloof hero, a staple of the historical romance. Devil’s Cub, as well as many other of Georgette Heyer’s books are currently available in paperback. Any of them would make a great gift for the romance readers in your life.

I never thought I could get into a Regency Romance. Well, I was wrong. This is not a new book. This a book that has been out for about 5o years, but still has writing that captured me and held my interest. The words are like poetry, easily flowing from one page to another. You forget how much of the book you have just read because it flowed so nicely. This author had incredible skill at writing and sent you on a trip back in time. The cover is gorgeous and you instantly get a feel for the book from the cover alone. I will be checking around for more books by this author.

Format: Paperback

Dimensions
Length: 8 in
Width: 5.25 in
Weight: 13.00 oz
Page Count: 320 pages