Both Freddy and Kitty willingly put themselves in this farce, and although he knows Kitty has another plan he doesn't know it involves the rakish Jack. Her real plan of course is to make Jack jealous and force him to finally propose, but what if Freddy is really the one for her?

They plan that after a month they'll quietly break it off and at least she would have seen London. Being a favorite of hers, she begs him to fake propose and take her to finally see London under the guise of being introduced to his parents. She plans to runaway and runs into Freddy Standen another cousin who arrives unaware of his uncle's intentions. The horrid thing is the cousin she wants to marry (Jack) doesn’t even come to claim her hand, leaving her to pick from the rest of her weird cousins or be left destitute. Out of the blue, Matthew decides to name Kitty as his heiress, but with conditions: she will only receive it if she marries one of his great-nephews.

Kitty Charing has been brought up by her rich guardian, Matthew Penicuik. Lots of excellent adventures along the way and even the ending has a bit of a twist to keep things interesting. Along the way both Kitty and Freddy grow, it does Freddy good to have someone else to care about and Kitty discovers a lot about the real world and what her feelings really are.

The rest of the plot involves Kitty being young and inexperienced in London, resolving Dolph's love life and circumventing his awful mother, Kitty's French cousin who falls inauspiciously in love and Jack being an awful rotten scoundrel. From here (about page 35) we al know how this is going to end up, it s just how we are going to get there. We see that actually Kitty is rather put out by all this and has conspired with Freddy to pretend that they are engaged because what she actually wants is some time in London and has a scheme that is never outlined but we imagine is to make Jack jealous. Because they all thought that she was in love with Jack, the rake and dashing gamester in the family. Freddy is the dandy in the family and everyone is surprised when Kitty accepts him. He is relieved when Kitty rejects his suit. Dolph is slightly lacking mentally even if he is an Earl and is only here because his rather overbearing mother has forced him to it. He's come to make sure that his brother, the Rev Hugh come up to scratch (he does, but badly). George is married and so ineligible and no-one know why he's come. At which point 4 of them descend on Uncle Matthew's house.

He announces to his various great nephews that he will bestow his fortune on his adopted daughter Kitty and which ever of the great nephews she marries. Uncle Matthew is the spider at the centre of this web. This ins one of those books where the excitement isn't in the ending, it's in the journey.

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