Book review- One Dance with a Duke by Timothy Leong
This is an exciting book, though not suitable for teens like me, actually. To get right to the heart of the book, I’ll say that this book is difficultly easy to read. It carries a cloud of mystery about it, yet at the end, beneath that cloud is just nothing. It gets mysterious, yet there is no mystery. This is said in praise of the book, as I will explain how I arrive at this conclusion.
The context is as such: In the early 1800s, in London, the famous Duke of Morland, or more widely known by his nickname The Duke of Midnight, is single, and wanting a wife. He is constantly invited to balls, and he always shows up only at the stroke of midnight, where he will select one lady; just one, out of all present, and dance one dance with her. He will then assess her while they dance, and if he finds her suitable, he will do the strangest thing- carry her in his arms and run out of the ball, without a word. But that is because he cannot withstand crowds. He has a fear of crowds. However, so far no woman has shown herself capable to him. And this is where, our main female character, Amelia d’Orsay, enters the picture.
The d’Orsay family is poor, but noble. They carry themselves in high dignity. Their father is not spoken much of, but their mother died young. While their mother was ill she had entrusted care of her four sons to Amelia, her daughter. As such, Amelia has a very close bond with her brothers, most particularly Jack, the youngest, least accomplished, gambling addict, but also the closest to her. Right now, Amelia d’Orsay is a single woman, between young and middle-aged. Her three other brothers have reputable careers, but the author writes little of them. Amelia is at a ball, sitting patiently with everyone else. She knows why they are all so still. They are waiting for midnight to strike, when the Duke of Midnight will come. He is handsome, tall, and rich.
Actually, the Duke of Morland wants to marry because he needs to pave the entrance for his ward, Claudia, to be married, and if she does not, then when the Duke dies all his property will pass on to his distant relatives, and Claudia would become penniless.
But just before he arrives, Jack does. He approaches Amelia with sorry eyes, and she brings him out the door to talk. She knows he would never quit gambling, she knows he is here for money, and she knows he will get it from her because deep in her heart Jack will always be that little brother, so sensitive and kind. He takes the last pennies she has taken with her, and goes away, especially because he owes a four hundred pound debt to Spencer, or the Duke of Morland, or the Duke of Midnight.
The Duke of Midnight does arrive. He looks into the crowd, and looks at Miss Melony Satin, a seemingly quiet girl. But before he grabs her, his hand is grabbed by Amelia. She takes him by surprise and onto the center of the ballroom. He finds her unattractive to the utmost, but, as they talked while dancing, he gathered she needed to get his attention because of her brother. She needed to get him to waive her brother’s debts. And as they talked, she used her best wits against him. After that, Spencer carries her off, and runs away.
Outside the ball, where the Duke needs a breath of fresh air, he feels too overwhelmed by Amelia. She had just grabbed his hand, made him lose his temper, and she was not even beautiful. However, he does not know why he keeps thinking of her. He tells her he actually knows about her family, and insults her by saying if they had learnt to walk away- knew when to stop, they would not be poor. Then he tells Amelia that if she made herself scarce there and then, she would have her brother’s debt waived. Amelia sees through it, and also is already attracted to him, and does not leave. Just as Amelia notices the Duke looks ill, she wants to help him but from the bush comes a voice calling the Duke. It appears to be Bellamy and Ashworth, the two other members of the Stud Club, a club of members with exclusive breeding rights to Osiris, a star racing horse. Bellamy is a poor chap and Ashworth is the Lord of Devonshire.
It concerns the death of Leo Chatwick, the Marquess of Harcliffe, who started the Stud Club. To obtain membership one must have a token, and the token can only be gained by winning it from someone with a token through luck, like a game of cards. There are only ten tokens, and the Duke of Morland has won seven of them, leaving the last three to Leo, Bellamy and Ashworth. The club was meant as a joke. But now that its creator is dead the three remaining members have the duty to inform his family, Lily Chatwick about it. And to protect her one of them has to marry her. Spencer does not want her, and Ashworth has obligations. Bellamy is of no status. Thus Spencer is forced to do it.
They meet Lily, who has lost most of her hearing from a high fever. Nobody talks about marrying her. Then Spencer offers her a deal, to buy Leo’s token for 20 000 pounds. He wants Osiris for himself, but does not let his reason out. Although Bellamy opposes because the token can only be won by luck, Lily does not oppose or accept it.
A whole host of events happens, and the Duke eventually decides to marry Amelia. Firstly, he finds that Amelia is beautiful enough for him, and secondly, she demonstrated an intellect on par with his, unlike other girls who were more beautiful than smart. The duke who now reveals his name as Spencer Dumarque. He marries chiefly to have a child also. In around the middle of the book, Amelia begins to probe more into his mystery, why he wants the tokens for the horse so bad, and what possible connection he might have with the death of Leo, since he has only been caring to obtain Leo’s token, not justice. Amelia says that until he comes clean with her on the truth can she willingly open herself up to him.
However, Amelia being soft-hearted, believed that Spencer truly was not the kind who would kill somebody just to get something. Spencer, seeing her trust in him, now gives her the truth, saying that he is actually no man of mystery. Actually, he wants Osiris because he has a childhood horse Juno. She is a female horse advancing in her years. She has a hatred for males, because when she was young she had a rebellious spirit and so all the stallkeepers constantly beat her. She eventually hated men. However, when Spencer acquired her he took the time to gain her trust and since then he is the only one Juno allows to ride on her back. Although Spencer does not want to ride with her anymore because she is old and is no longer suitable for bearing his weight, if he does not take her out for spins she will only get moody and lonely. Spencer wants to help her stop being lonely without having to ride her because it was bad for her and so he goes back to the stable where Juno was born. He tells Amelia that because horses do bond together in their youth, he suspects Juno had bonded with Osiris, since they were from the same place. That was why he had wanted all the tokens so badly, because he wanted to save Juno from her misery, and he was willing to pay 20 000 pounds for a token because she was his childhood friend. Amelia knows he is telling the truth, but finds t hard to believe that beneath his mysterious actions all the intention there is was just for retrieving a companion for his childhood pet. At this point in tie they both fully trust each other.
Then, before they can have a happy ending Jack comes back. Amelia is happy to see him. But Jack ignores her and approaches Spencer, telling him he has Leo’s token. On the day Leo died he was first discovered by a prostitute, who had not realized what Leo’s token meant and kept it with her. Jack chanced upon her and gave her a shilling in exchange for the coin. The prostitute did it at once, not realizing the true worth of the token. Jack now demands a large sum from Spencer in exchange for the token. Spencer agrees and Jack leaves.
Claudia who his spencer’s ward is another problem because she keeps acting up to the adults in the house. She even tries to elope with Jack in defiance. These two youngsters are the pain in the necks of Spencer and Amelia, but in the end Amelia realizes that Jack probably will never quit gambling, and gives him a final sum of money and sends him away from her for good, knowing this would hurt her but it was better for Jack, and also the reason why Claudia kept rebelling against them was because she wanted to avoid them. She was with child. A love child, but she thought the adults would not understand. When Amelia tells Spencer about it, he is happy Jack is gone from their lives, and promises Claudia that he understands and whatever path she chooses to take he will support her together with Amelia. Also, Spencer and Ashworth talk together while fishing at the end of the story discussing all the happenings. Ashworth thinks Bellamy is just worrying too much, and Spencer says it’s probably guilt that is eating him. Perhaps he sees the murderer everytime he looks into the mirror. On the night Leo died, Bellamy was originally supposed to accompany him to watch a show but in the end backed out. Ashworth agrees and also points out he is probably also driven by guilt to protect Lily Chatwick. They leave the matter at that.
My thoughts: This story was ordinary but the point was that sometimes people act mysterious but it is only a cover. As a quote goes, “Destroy the mask of death and you will see there is nothing behind it to fear.” When Spencer looked like a mysterious dark figure, it turned out he was just a little boy in a man, wanting to help his horse. Also, sometimes money and status merely mask one’s true character.
