Review: The Soldier's Dark Secret

I have a pretty good handle on my print TBR. Even as mammoth as it is, I have a rough idea of what's languishing there.  My Kindle? Another matter entirely. I have an endless pile of eBooks and while they're roughly organized into collections - Lord knows what I'll find when I open up a random folder. I took it into my head that I wanted to read a Harlequin Historical so I opened that folder, scrolled way, way (way....) back and landed on The Soldier's Dark Secret by Marguerite Kaye. A book that's been hanging around for me since 2015 (sigh).

A second son, officer Jack Trestain is home after Waterloo, having resigned his commission as Wellington's top code breaker. As is the way with war, Jack comes home a changed man - haunted and not quite himself. He's staying in the country with his older brother, sister-in-law and a young, pestering nephew who wants to hear glorious war stories from his hero Uncle Jack. This goes over about as well as you'd expect from Jack, a man who came home "troubled" (and what we would now diagnose as PTSD).

Celeste Marimon is a lovely French artist hired by Jack's brother to immortalize the family estate's grounds and gardens before they do an extensive remodeling. Celeste is part English, in country for the first time ever after the tragic death of her mother (by suicide).  They had a strained relationship and were estranged for several years.  Her mother, having left behind a letter, leaves Celeste with more questions than answers. She takes the commission with the Trestains not only for the work, but also hoping to find some answers in her mother's home country.  Jack, with his various military connections, decides to help her out.

There's plenty of angst in the book, but I also found this to be a very quiet romance.  Jack and Celeste are immediately drawn to each other, both having been celibate, and not terribly interested in changing that status, for a while prior to locking eyes on each other.  Celeste, an artist stationed in Paris, has taken more than one lover in her time, but none of whom ignited a passionate fervor in her the way Jack seems to.  Even prior to the experiences that haunt him post-Waterloo, Jack was not sowing a mess of wild oats with French women and/or camp followers.  Feeling anything other than dead inside comes as quite a shock once that first passionate kiss ignites things between him and Celeste.

Moving the book forward is the slow revealing of the war experiences that are haunting Jack and the mystery of Celeste's background, the secrets her mother kept firmly locked away.  Celeste has a few clues to go on, some hazy childhood memories, a man's signet ring, and the letter her mother left behind, half written in riddles.  This mystery eventually takes our couple to a dinner party honoring Wellington, to London and to Paris.  I was engrossed in this part of the story and really loved the outcome of the mystery.

There's not a lot of flash and histrionics to this romance, which honestly is just fine and fits this particular story quite well.  There's a lot of baggage between Celeste and Jack, but Kaye keeps it quiet and doesn't fall into the trap of overblown drama (which I sometimes like, but in this story would have been a disaster).  A lovely Regency era romance with compelling conflict and the only Duke in sight being Wellington.

Final Grade = B