Description

[from inside dj flap] Raine Sherwood and her friends had always had everything they wanted, and they took it for granted that the world would continue indefinitely to revolve around them. Nothing was more important than the next night's party or the next day's hunting.

But on one particular crisp November morning, more than "good hunting weather" occupied Raine's thoughts. Grif Buchanan, a stranger returned from military service in India, joined the meet that day. He was officiously guarded by his hostess, Patricia Wyndham; but he showed enough interest in Raine to provoke Trevor Beaumont's jealousy. "Beau" had grown up with Raine and her brother Timmy, and had been in love with Raine for years. Grif represented a different world -- a world he knew was about to explode into war, something none of these people believed or understood.

This is a provocative story of a girl who faced a new situation with characteristic insouciance -- and who found this time that the attitude didn't fit. In a world at war, Raine grew up; and the qualities which two men loved in her were not enough for happiness until she understood her own heart.

Notes

Then Came the Test is a departure from Margaret Pedler's usual man-blighted-by-secret-past theme and, honestly, I found myself missing the earliers' high rpm angst. She pretty much had one trick but, in small, infrequent doses, it was a good one. "Test" is just dull. There's Raine giving off Vivien Leigh Scarlett O'Hara (minus the conniving) vibes -- lovely, landed, fêted, soon to be poor. There's recuperating-from-typhoid Grif Buchanan, all moralizing disapproval "I might manage to turn you into quite a decent person in course of time." (75) There's fox-hunting across the Downs, skiing in the Alps, and the fateful (but not really) tumble at Hell's Corner that serves as the source of the Big Mis. And none of it's interesting, not even the start of the War. As I'm finding with a surprising number of vintage reads, it would have been better had it focussed on a side couple -- Raine's sensible, loyal companion-come-friend Dodie Richards - a young widow still traumatized by her abusive marriage -- and the kind, capable man who buys Strowan Court to turn it into a country club, and later takes on an important catering role for the armed forces. Or even Nigel Scrope, the "tall, thin, rather cynical-looking man with the charming manners which nearly thirty years' experience with life had taught him covered a multitude of sins" (19) who shows flashes of unexpected depth and self-understanding in conversations with the older, still beautiful Countess de Marquion, Raine's "godmère" (and, herself, the widow of a much younger man). See, Margaret, was that so hard?

Flags: domestic violence (emotional), references to service in India against "northern tribes", etc.

Tags

1940s, Big Mis(understanding), English, Europe, Austria, Europe, England, One Woman/Man, the, athletic, beautiful/handsome, brave, courageous, can't help loving you/love despite, charming, cheerful, clueless, competent, disability, acquired, disability, cured, dominant, f/m, female, forthright, get it together!, hair, dark, heir/heiress, independent, injury, intelligent, love at first sight, love triangle, lovers, spoiled for choice, madcap, modern medicine, miracle of, mountains, personal growth/becoming a better person, practical, principled, riches to rags, romance, saving the family home, second/third-act breakup, single, soldier, spirited, spoiled, third-person, young

Flags

domestic violence