Some of Georgette Heyer’s books have a certain air of authenticity of the time they’re set in. This is not one of them.
Sir Gareth Ludlow is on the way to totally flub up a marriage proposal (the whys are not important. It’s immediately clear he and Lady Hester will eventually be engaged) when he happens upon the young Amanda “Smith”, who has run away from her grandfather because he won’t let her marry her one true love.
Sir Gareth, being an honorable man, does his best to figure out how to get Amanda home, but she’s stubborn, and isn’t giving him many clues about her real identity, and keeps trying to run away. Eventually, Sir Gareth gets shot, Amanda has to summon Lady Hester, everyone’s family’s find them, and we all live happily ever after.
This book is just mad cap. Only way to describe it. Would absolutely have never in a billion years happened in Regency times, but it’s still a fun story.