This story began nicely but quickly evolved into a tangle of misunderstandings that lasted to the end of the book, which was immensely grating. First, there was the fact of Harriet's name (only a big issue until later), then over her pretty young cousin, then her uncle's courtship of a coal mine owner's daughter, and on the hero's side his illegitimate son (he was framed by the evil mother) and his resulting banishment to Barbados and bad relationship with his brother, as well as a murderous Frenchman on the loose. Finally, it didn't help that the hero - in order to escape his reputation - lied to the heroine about his name.
All the problems were foreseeable 50 pages early, so when the misunderstandings came I almost wanted to flip to the end of the book.
I've read about 10 of Martha Kirkland's books now and this one is not up to her usual standards.