Victoria and the Rogue

Victoria and the Rogue is a novel by Meg Cabot. It's part of the Avon True Romance series for young adults.

Plot summary

The story takes place in the early 19th century in England. Victoria Arbuthnot, 16, is the daughter of a duke that died long ago, along with his wife. She is entitled to sixty thousand pounds, and, as a result, catches the eye of the very handsome (if not rich) Lord Malfrey. Victoria could not be more delighted, but then there's the meddling of Captain Jacob Carstairs to deal with. She is confused why he's trying to break their engagement, but when she takes a close look at Lord Malfrey's affairs herself, she learns more than she ever needed to know. She is, for the first time ever, wrong.

This book begins with Victoria going to scold the ship's cook (she went to London, England all the way from India) AbOUT his undercooked roast. Outside, she meets Lord Malfrey, who she met on the ship three months ago. He proposes to her, and just when she's considering to turn it down, Captain Carstairs appears. At that time, she doesn't know that he owns the ship, and merely thinks that he's a naval officer. She then accepts Lord Malfrey's proposal just to annoy Captain Carstairs.

After a few days, she arrives at London, where she meets her cousins, aunt, and uncle, the Gardiner family. She notices that the eldest cousin, Rebecca Gardiner, 17, likes Captain Carstairs, a highly disagreeable man, in her opinion. At dinner, Captain Carstairs joins the Gardiner family, just when Victoria thought that she left him for good on that boat. He tells them about Victoria's engagement, which causes a turmoil of trouble.

A week later, Captain Carstairs asks each of the cousins (Victoria and Rebecca) to a dance, thinking that he ended Victoria's engagement for good. A conversation with Victoria during the dance, however, proves this assumption to be wrong. He goes to Victoria's uncle to stop the engagement. Rebecca goes with Victoria to see his speech, just when it's coming to its end. After arguing about Lord Malfrey being a "rogue", Victoria spies a gentleman (Mr. Abbot) nearby perfect for Rebecca and to keep her away from Captain Carstairs, whom she highly dislikes. She sets up a meeting for them, and soon they fall in love. She then meets up with her fiancé at the dance.

Victoria meets Captain Carstairs again at her soon-to-be mother-in-law's picnic. There, she stops a streetchild from stealing her cousin's purse, who she frees after hearing of criminals being hanged.

A few days later, Victoria gets ready to go to Captain Carstairs' home, since he's a great friend of the Gardiners and invited them there. Victoria gets to know that he has an older sister that is now married. After a while, Captain Carstairs brings a new eyeglass and everyone goes outside to look at the moon and stars. Then they go back inside when they can't see anything. Victoria stays, determined to see the Dead Sea, that Rebecca had. Captain Carstairs stays with her, much to her annoyance. He locks the gates, much to her surprise, and tells her the real reason he doesn't want her to marry Lord Malfrey. His sister was engaged to Lord Malfrey, but was cast aside when Captain Carstairs' father lost his fortne and died. It seemed that Lord Malfrey only married for money. In the heat of the moment, they kiss, long and passionately, until Rebecca tries the doors, only to find them "stuck". Captain Carstairs unlocks the door, and Victoria gets sent to bed, unable to figure out why she had kissed him like that, even though she hates him.

The next day, Victoria goes to break off her engagement with Lord Malfrey. After all, which girl likes a man who only married her for money? After that, she meets with Captain Carstairs, who she tells to "bother the next poor heiress Lord Malfrey gets himself engaged to". She still doesn't know why she kissed him like that. But that doesn't seem to be Captain Carstairs only intention. He proposes to her, which she turns down, since their were no compliments, or even "moonlight", and because of her supposed dislike of him. He leaves angrily, saying that that was the first and last time he'll propose to her. Victoria doesn't seem to care, and is busy with arranging other people's affairs (Rebecca and Mr. Abbot) to have time to care.

She decides to meet up with Lord Malfrey to give him his letters back. It rains, and he takes her to his home, where she takes off her wet clothes in a spare room. Lady Malfrey (Lord Malfrey's mother) then tells her about the plan to ruin her reputation so she'll have to marry Lord Malfrey. Who will like a girl who spent a night at a single man's house with only her underclothes? Victoria resolves to run away, by climbing out an open window, with only her underclothes and a blanket. The streetchild she saved helps her by leading her to his "home", and taking a message for her to Captain Carstairs, who'll pick her up. He comes with spare clothes and shoes, blushing furiously at her in her underclothes. She tells him how she got to be there in a carriage ride home, but doesn't even thank him for rescuing her. Captain Carstairs leaves angrily again.

After a few minutes, Victoria suddenly realizes that she loves Captain Carstairs, but then worries about how she's going to get him to propose to her again. She decides on sending the spare clothes and shoes back with an apologetic note. She meets him the next day at Almack's (a social gathering every week). He tells her why he couldn't reply to her message, and proposes to her again. They live happily ever after.

Series

This is a list of all the books in the Avon True Romance series for young adults.