Lord Leominster married Camilla for convenience only - yet she found herself falling ever more deeply in love with him! At a time when England and Napoleonic France were about to lock horns, Leominster embarks on a secret diplomatic mission to Portugal, where the French army is about to strike. Camilla and her flighty sister-in-law accompany him and cruel circumstance plunges them all into disaster. Separated from her husband, Camilla spends the winter in hiding from the French and more intimate enemies. But after a harrowing escape, their reunion is fraught with surprise - for Leominster, it was the most incredible surprise of all.
Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.