Bethan Steele is a relief society nurse who was recently caught in an explosion in Beirut. Her friend was killed and Bethan was sent back to England for recovery, and although her wounds are now mended she's sort of got PTSD so her boss insists that she can't be sent back into the field. But Bethan hasn't got any friends or family to turn to in England so her boss arranges for her to hire on with his friend Lorna Ruston who is resting up from an illness in preparation for hip surgery – they could be good for each other, with each viewing the other as the patient! Only once Bethan settles in she meets Lorna's nephew Fraser Laurie – the very man Bethan was in love with at 18. Fraser believes that Bethan is no better than her mother who left her adoptive step father and Bethan for a man she had an affair with and moved to the US (he even thinks she slept with her slimy stepbrother). Bethan believes that Fraser rejected her love at his sister Ishbel's birthday party all those years ago. But what if both their beliefs were mistaken?
Let's get one thing straight first – Bethan has a huuuuge martyr complex and the author does nothing to help the poor girl. Here are the events: Bethan 13 was sent to boarding school by her beloved stepfather, Charles, after her mother abandoned them and meets Ishbel and her brother Fraser and falls in love. At 18 she and Fraser make out in the barn but the girl he brought to the party shows up and Fraser leaves with her, laughing. The next thing Bethan remembers is waking up in hospital being told she was out drunk driving and killed a little girl riding her bike. On trial for manslaughter she is kept away from her family and Ishbel and Fraser seemingly drop her. She is told by her stepbrother Mark that Charles never wants to see her again as she's tarnished the family name. She takes her mother's name and joins the relief service only to be horribly scarred in the bomb blast. She doesn't drink because of that car accident and she doesn't drive either. When Fraser finds her with his aunt she prevents the aunt from telling him that she was in the bomb blast and he assumes she's lying cuz Mark told him she ran off to the US to live with her mother and that she was a slut and he believed him. Fraser commands her to pick weeds from the vineyard and she does so for so many hours that her palms get blistered from the hoe and she loses consciousness for several hours! Mhmm, Fraser goes on and tells her that Charles was asking for her when she was on trial because he had had a stroke the day before her trial and Charles believed she refused to come to him and died just a few years later, putting another death on her! Fraser is engaged and his girl Siriol is worried that Fraser might be attracted to Bethan so she asks Bethan, and Bethan suffers through recounting the whole painful history of how she believes Fraser rejected her to make the other girl feel better (meanwhile Bethan still loves Fraser, btw)!
Anyway my point is that the author makes poor Bethan suffer waaay to much and Bethan does it waaay too gladly. I would like to note that if you've ever had to suffer through this kind of martyr overkill storyline you are sure to love "The Unfeasibly Tall Greek Billionaire's Blackmailed Martyr-Complex Secretary Mistress Bride"!
