 |
| Beatrice got to the hilltop a little too early on Midsummer's morning. |
Beatrice's life is anything but exciting. Instead of training to be a veterinarian like her father, she is his assistant. Lots of on-the-job training, but no room for advancement either. Her lack of career leaves her open and available to take on such mundane jobs such as 'Acting Companion' to Great-Aunt Sybil - who she is not fond of (the feeling is mutual). Great-Auntie should probably have been set adrift on a convenient iceberg years ago, but failing that, she spends her time bad-mouthing her family and medical professionals. After a visit to a noted cardiologist in London (that would be our boy Oliver), a suitable companion is found. Or rather, a suitable companion is sent. Oliver just so happened to know someone.
Papa Browning, the village veterinarian, has a heart attack. It's sure a handy and convenient thing that Oliver is a cardiologist. Oliver suggests to Beatrice that she hire a locum. It's really a shame that he doesn't know a handy vet who happens to be at loose ends for a few weeks, because, well, you'll see.
The agency sends a man. I suppose we must call him a man, although he is more closely related to the reptile kingdom. Think of a snake with opposable thumbs.
Colin Wood, he of the showy yellow sports car with lots of luggage, several tennis rackets and a set of golf clubs.
Colin Wood, young and exciting. Danger, danger, danger...(I'm saying this with a fake Australian accent).
Colin Wood, sniffing around the veterinary practice account books.
Colin Wood, plotter of mercenary marriage to the unsuspecting Beatrice...until she overhears the Phone Conversation O' Doom wherein he outs his true mercenary motive for chatting up Beatrice.
Colin Wood, stalker extraordinaire.
Colin practically attacks Beatrice in the middle of the village - Beatrice is saved by Oliver - whom she calls her 'fiancee'. Oliver assures Colin that the announcement will be in the Telegraph the very next day. Which it is.
Oliver invites Beatrice to go on a two-week lecture tour with him (and his assistant, the delightful Miss Ethel Cross).
Colin has taken to writing impassioned letters to Beatrice. Beatrice is so over him by this time - the letters don't even mean anything to her.
Lecture Tour O' Liking or Great Hotels of Europe. Two weeks at the finest hotels in Utrecht, Cologne, Copenhagen and Brussels...Just as Oliver drives away from dropping her back at her house - finally, finally! Beatrice realizes she's in love - but since she has endowed Oliver with an imaginary fiancee, there's nothing she can do about it.
 |
| Chasing burglars was just a way to let off a little excess steam, after all, she couldn't bring herself to chase Oliver. |
If she wasn't already in love, two weeks of forced Oliver Drought would have certainly make her heart grow fonder...as it is, she's in such a muddle about her feelings for him, the faux engagement, his imaginary fiancee and life in general that she scampers into hiding the next time she hears the gentle purr of his Rolls. Two can play the sneaky game...Oliver pops up unexpectedly and asks her why she hid. Em-bar-ass-ing, much?
 |
| Sorry Colin, the better man is going to win this time. |
Time to wrap it up:
- Visit to Aunt Polly in Cornwall (a whole 3 pages worth).
- Kissing on the street.
- Takes her home...thorough kissing in front of the whole family. Muddled thoughts for Beatrice.
- Proposal on the hilltop where they met. 'I promised myself when we met that one day I would ask you to marry me on this very spot...'
 |
| Miss Ethel always wore her little black number when she received her employee of the month award. |
Rating: I'm pretty sure the reason I didn't like Hilltop Tryst before had to do with how monumentally thick Beatrice seemed. She meets a great guy, then falls for a weasel, then has to get over the weasel, THEN falls for the great guy. Ugh. On closer reading I'm willing to cut her a little bit of slack. Yes, she's still pretty (very) thick, but she'd been fending off the feeble advances of the local doctor's son for years - I get the impression she wants a little more zip in her love life, and her first impression of Oliver is that he's pretty un-zippy. Along comes Colin - he's a flash in the pan, but a charmer - in the smarmy, insincere kind of way. Beatrice is side-swiped by his flattery, and nearly falls for it. It takes her longer than I felt was strictly necessary for her to get over Colin - especially when he shows his true colours so boldly (and badly). I do love a few of the bit players - Great-Aunt Sybil is fabulously awful (but we've seen her type before), little sister Ella is fun (but we've seen...etc...). Miss Ethel Cross is one of my favorite characters, but considering her limited word count, that doesn't speak too well of the book. All things considered, I found this book both better and worse than I remembered. Better, in that I understood Beatrice a little more, and worse, in that it takes quite a while for not much to happen. Madiera Cake for me...
Fashion: My favorite outfit, by far, is the 'little black number' worn by Ethel Cross. Beatrice wears a pale rose wild silk bridesmaid dress to her sister's wedding while Oliver is 'wearing his morning coat as if he was in the habit of doing so frequently...it was certainly not hired from Moss Bros.' Blue linen dress and little jacket, pale pink cotton dress with a demur collar, dark blue one piece swimsuit.
Food: Bacon, eggs and mushrooms for breakfast, ham on the bone and potatoes in their jackets, pork pies, duchesse potatoes, strawberry tart, lettuce soup (???), grilled sole, fresh fruit, peach tart, brioche.
Betty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteWell, I certainly understood Beatrice falling for Colin. Young, handsome, dashing, etc. You are so right-he was the bit of excitement she was looking for and Oliver did not project 'excitement'.
And I understand her reluctance to tell her father that Colin is stalking her, but she should have broadcast it to the rest of her family and the village. Why didn't she make a big scene when he grabbed her?
And, of course, the bigger question, why didn't Colin cut his loses and seek greener pastures?
(Oh silly Betty Barbara--because we wouldn't have had a book now, would we?).
I loved, loved Ethel-but she was about all I loved about this book.
Madeira Cake seems like a fair grade.
Yeah, Colin didn't make much sense to me either. It's not like Beatrice was an heiress...and he didn't really even like her that much. Surely there were easier pickings to be had. Perhaps a wealthy greengrocer's daughter?
ReplyDeleteMy impression was that The Great Betty was working through the flip side of the RDD's worries about being too old. Here, she gave her heroine what the heroine thought she wanted: a Younger Hero. Hah! Be careful what you wish for!
ReplyDeleteIt's all nonsense, of course -- anyone with a few synapses firing can see how heroic an RDD/REW is the moment he strides up that hill with a missing Jack Russell under one arm. It's just that if Beatrice has her dawning (literally: sunrise!) realization at the same time that Oliver had it, there's no conflict and it's a mighty short, if smarter, book.
But I find this book way less troublesome than the ones where the "faux-mance" gets further along, e.g., Uncertain Summer, Cruise to a Wedding, Midsummer Night's Magic, Not Once But Twice, Midsummer Star, The Daughter of the Manor, and my really least favorite, Off With the Old Love.
(That's my database coming through for me -- I have notes on all the books I've reread in the last year. Of course, there are still about 50 books to go. I gotta hurry up!)
OK, I have to say, I disagree guys. I LIKE this book. I LOVE the running down the street in the dressing gown scene, and Oliver at breakfast with the family (fits right in like he was made for it). He's patient and gentle, and there's not a harsh word between them. He slays all her dragons... she gives him credit somewhere toward the end when she says, "You're always there." Aunt Polly is a treat too... I love that she offers them a cat. :-)I thought the dialogue was, on the whole, above average.
ReplyDeleteOne more week of lent!
We miss you, you know.
ReplyDeleteAhoy, Betty Cyndi!
ReplyDeleteI actually liked this book better upon reading it again. That Beatrice fell for Colin and missed Oliver was implied pretty heavily when her 15-year-old sister observes that she is darn naïve about men (having spent more time with animals) and that just when she began to show an interest in Oliver (previously assuming he was married), she sees him after long bouts of staying up saving her father and realizes he was quite a bit older than she thought. Add to it that a practicing cardiologist in his or her element is indeed quite formidable regardless of casual hillside meetings.
I like that she has nice parents. Her mother is concerned that Beatrice used Oliver in claiming an engagement until she found out that it was Oliver’s idea. Ahhhh…..
It contains some lovely examples of how Mrs. Neels was just better than others:
“Aunt Polly skewered his eyes with her own shrewd ones.”
[His London housekeeper Rosie]: “The faintest glimmer of a smile did its best.”
[After chasing down a burglar in her dressing gown]: “‘He could have turned nasty, miss,’ he [policeman] told her. She forebore from telling him that Great-Aunt Sybil could turn nasty too, especially if she had come downstairs and found her cabinets rifled. On the whole, she thought, she preferred the burglar.” SNORT
p.s. Did anyone notice that They actually got the cover right?
I liked the book too. It had some different fun elements, and I liked the parents and familial relationships (except Great Aunt Sybil!) The cover is right and Oliver is really is nice.Ah well, I'm a bit scattered.
ReplyDelete“No, on second thoughts you had better open the letters. There are bound to be answers to my advertisement.” (For a companion for Great-Aunt Sybil) But from the little pile of letters Beatrice opened there were only three, and they didn’t sound at all hopeful. The first one made it a condition that she should bring her cat with her…..
ReplyDeleteOm my goodness! Could it be that the chain of destiny almost linked Suzannah Lightfoot and her heroic cat Horace to Great Aunt Sybil, and thus to Beatrice and Oliver? Betty Meridith would really like to know.
I just read Chain of Destiny so this hits just right! Too funny!
Delete