REVIEW: An Ordinary Girl by Betty Neels
An ordinary girl. An extraordinary love?
Professor James Forsyth is intrigued when he first meets Philomena Selby. She’s so shy and kind – he’s used to much more demanding women!
There was no doubt James is very handsome but Philly knows he has a fiancée and as a plain country girl, she can’t hope to match such a glamorous woman.
But James has been struck by Philly’s inner beauty…and surely she’s much more the woman he wants as his wife…?
Originally published in 2001.
Review
I think this is one of the last books that Betty Neels wrote. Or perhaps it’s just been updated as two characters actually use mobiles (US= cell phone). It’s a bit short on pets (only two labs and the manservant’s tabby cat), and Old Retainers (not sure how long the London manservant has been dishing up superb dinners but Nanny watches the hero’s little Oxfordshire cottage), and the hero has only a Bentley (but he’s not Dutch so no need for a car in both countries). But guess what!! Not only is there an Evil Other Woman but an Evil Other Man, too!
Nether Ditchling is the site of the beginning of our romance. Rich doctor James Forsyth (pediatrician with hospital privileges and a private practice though Sybil means to have him stop working in the hospital so he can take her out dining and dancing more with her swanky friends) is driving his gorgeous fiancée to an engagement party – such a bore says Sybil. When he stops the Bentley to ask a rustic (Sybil’s opinion) for directions, he and Philly meet. Sybil is horrified at Philly’s old dress and red hands. The Vicarage does have a washing machine but the sheets still have to be pinned up on the line (perhaps near the chicken coop?) to dry. The encounter might be short but both Philly and James both immediately have that feeling of having known the other for a long time.
Not long after, Sybil’s thoughtlessness manages to strand her and James in the village with a terrible snowstorm blocking their way in or out. The big old Vicarage quickly fills up with people caught in the snow drifts. James cheerfully pitches in while Sybil sulks and tries to whine her way into having a tray brought up after she soaks in a hot bath. James nixes that idea and then the next morning tops his efforts to be the Best Guest Ever by digging out a path to the chickens. Vicar Selby and his missus are impressed while Philly’s (otherwise nice) sisters tease her a little about James.
Philly is a sensible girl (though she’s twenty-seven the term “girl” seems to fit) and knows that she would never beat out Sensational Sybil who wears couture clothes. But Philly also can’t stop thinking of James as much as he thinks of her. Since he thinks he must put her out of his mind, he’s merely polite the next few times they meet. Because of course they meet. When Sybil senses that James is slipping through her fingers to That Creature (of all people), she realizes that Something Must Be Done. Luckily she has a male cousin who is as nasty and eager for a bit of sport as she is. Too bad that several people sniff a whiff of something wrong and James is keen to get to the bottom of it. His Philly couldn’t be falling for that Cad, could she?
The Blizzard is the main All Hands-on Deck event for this book with a bonus emergency of a baby with meningitis. The snow is quickly there when needed to strand James and Philly together (but with parental chaperonage) while allowing time to make it crystal clear how much of a whinging witch Sybil is. Honestly, if Betty hadn’t made James a brilliant and dedicated doctor, I would wonder about his intelligence in getting engaged to Sybil. After meeting Philly and never managing to get her out of his mind, he quickly determines that he was suckered into falling for Sybil’s pretty face but pretty is as pretty does and Sybil fails miserably at being a decent human. I kind of wonder if James’s Nanny and manservant wouldn’t have slipped Sybil something, had the wedding actually occurred.
Frankly the story (it’s actually more novella in length) is one long miscommunication as James and Philly keep denying, denying, denying that they feel anything for the other. To his credit, James susses out the truth and in a splendid scene he lowers the boom on the Evil Other People thus ending the engagement before he says anything to Philly about his true feelings. James has exquisite manners. I think Nanny and the manservant will be as delighted to have Philly as their new mistress as James is. B
~Jayne
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Time for a re-re (re?) read?
I don’t recall cell phones in any of Betty Neels’ books, although they certainly existed in 2001.
@LML: I’ve noticed a few obvious updates in other books published earlier but wondered if Neels actually originally included the cell phones here.
I have a paperback edition, earlier than the one pictured here. Alas, it is in a box in another country.