Finished: Black Sheep (Heyer) A fun book...kind of a Jane Austin-light book, quickly paced with happy endings or assumed happy endings for the main characters. It ends in the middle of a conversation between the heroine and her beloved...but a happy conversation. It was number 102 on my Top 100 list, so I thought I'd give it a try and see why it ranked so high. :-) Abigail Wendover is an heiress and is the ancient age of 28. Gasp! She lives with her sister and her motherless 17 year old niece, Fanny, at their estate in Bath. Fanny has always listened to Abby's advice, but now an odious fortune hunter, Stacy Calverleigh, has turned her head, and Abby is concerned. Stacy Calverleigh, more Abby's ages than Fanny's, is about to lose his family estate, Danescourt, and is in severe debt. He is shamelessly begging Fanny to marry him, even to elope, since his charms have not worked on Abby or her older brother (the keeper of all the family money), James. Enter Stacy's "black sheep" uncle, Miles Calverleigh. A good 10 years older than Abby, and not classically handsome, and basically immune to the conventions of society, he comes to Bath after 20 years of family exile in India. (He had scandalously tried to elope with an heiress himself 20 years earlier and been sent off by his father.) Everyone assumes he has no money of his own, but of course a smart reader knows better, lol. He has accompanied Oliver Grayshott, the son of a prominent family home by boat, as Oliver became terribly ill in India. Oliver just happens to be the brother of Fanny's best friend, Lavinia, and she thinks of him only as a brother, but it soon becomes obvious that Oliver is in love with Fanny. Anyway....when Abby first meets Miles, the sparks fly, as they both have humorous, stubborn, fly-in-the-face of convention personalities. Abby begs Miles to help her put a stop to his nephew Stacy's attentions from Fanny. Miles claims to have not a care for his nephew and says he won't mingle in the affairs. However, soon he is declaring his own love for Abby, and we know he will take matters into his own hands. He does so with quite a wonderful ruse that has Stacy dumping Fanny for a "rich widow" who breezes into Bath, thus breaking Fanny's heart, but opening her eyes. Of course, the widow is really just an actress...but now the truth about Stacy's character is known. In the meantime, Oliver has quietly lent his shoulder to Fanny, so that we can assume that in the future, they end up together. Meanwhile, Miles is begging Abby to marry him, but her sister insists that her marrying the black sheep of the Calverleigh family will be too disastrous and what's more, she will lose her beloved sister since head-of-family, James, has threatened to disown her if she marries a Calverleigh. Whatever shall she do? As it turns out, Miles has made his fortune in India! He buys the highly mortgaged Danescourt, also his family home, from the flummoxed Stacy (who had also been convinced of his uncle's monetary non-status), giving Stacy just enough money to get out of debt, but to still lose his good name and reputation. Then, he takes Abby for a ride in the country and lets her know that to take the decision out of her hands, he's abducting her to go and get married! Of course, she half-heartedly objects, but when she demands to be taken home, he stops the horses and says, if that's truly what you want, I'll take you home. She says that she can't tell a lie....meaning she does, in fact, want to marry him. In the middle of their conversation, though, the book ends! Such a strange ending, but nicely wrapped up in that you can see a happy future for both Miles and Abby, and eventually Fanny and Oliver. :-) I wish there was a sequel!