The Last Lady B Summary: Eloisa James’s Gothic Romance
TL;DR: A Bride, a Bargain, and a Haunted Abbey
Lady Genevieve Sutton is twenty-five, without a dowry, and finished with the marriage market. In May 1805 she strikes a cold bargain: she will marry a seventy-year-old baron with three dead wives if he secures her younger sister’s future.
Seven months later, that arrangement carries her to a snowbound medieval abbey in the Scottish Highlands for her husband’s birthday.
Eloisa James’s The Last Lady B follows Genevieve into Burnsby Lodge, where hidden relatives, a resident opera singer, and a stern Crown barrister unsettle everything she thought she had settled.
The book mixes Regency social satire with Gothic atmosphere — secret passages, candlelit chapels, and a house full of people who are not what they claim to be.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
- Readers of Regency historical romance who prefer sharp, outspoken heroines.
- Fans of Gothic settings used for comedy as much as atmosphere.
- Those drawn to marriage-of-convenience plots that turn into genuine love.
- Readers who enjoy found-family stories and female solidarity over rivalry.
The setup: A dowryless 25-year-old marries a vain 70-year-old baron purely to fund her sister’s debut.
The complication: His Highland abbey houses a decades-long mistress, a neglected teenage daughter, three dead wives’ worth of rumors, and a hidden first marriage.
The turn: Genevieve refuses to play the meek wife, takes over the household, and falls for the barrister who once assumed she was a fortune hunter.
The resolution: A parish register, a family Bible, and a ghost expose a chain of invalid marriages — and free her to marry again.
Core themes: propriety versus honesty, female autonomy, hypocrisy, chosen family, and love against transaction.
Characters in The Last Lady B
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Lady Genevieve Sutton | The 25-year-old protagonist who marries Lord Burnsby to secure her sister’s dowry. |
| Sir Godric Everley | A Crown barrister and former ward of Burnsby who falls in love with Genevieve. |
| Lord Clifford Clifton Burnsby | The 70-year-old Baron Burnsby, Genevieve’s husband and the novel’s antagonist. |
| Sophonisba Ainsworth | Burnsby’s opera singer mistress, born Susanna Brattle, who has lived at the abbey for decades. |
| Ophelia Burnsby | Burnsby’s neglected 14-year-old daughter by his second wife, Hecuba. |
| Aunt Mima | An elderly resident of the abbey later revealed as Lily Jemima Newell, Burnsby’s first legal wife. |
| Lancelot “Lance” Burnsby | Burnsby’s son and heir, a barrister and French consul titled Count Marmont. |
| Colette Marmont | Lance’s wealthy French-Guyanese wife, a countess titled by Napoleon. |
| Peony | A piglet Genevieve rescues from a village market and keeps as a pet. |
| Sir William Sutton | Genevieve and Rosie’s father. |
| Rosie Sutton | Genevieve’s younger sister, for whose dowry the marriage is made. |
| Crumpsall | The butler of Burnsby Lodge. |
| Miss Wellington | The red-haired housekeeper of Burnsby Lodge. |
| Tess Hughes | Genevieve’s loyal East London maid. |
| Hecuba | Burnsby’s deceased second wife and Ophelia’s mother. |
| Alice | Burnsby’s deceased third wife. |
The Last Lady B Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers ahead. This section recounts the plot, including the ending.
In May 1805, Lady Genevieve Sutton arranges a marriage with Clifford, Baron Burnsby. She trades her youth for a contract that guarantees her sister Rosie a debut dowry, a jointure, and a wardrobe.
The marriage is never consummated. In December 1805, Burnsby takes Genevieve north to Burnsby Lodge, a former medieval abbey in the Grampian Mountains, to mark his seventieth birthday.
On the road, she rescues a six-week-old piglet from a market in the village of Sifton. She names her Peony and insists on keeping her.
At the abbey she meets a household of oddities: forgetful Aunt Mima, the lean butler Crumpsall, housekeeper Miss Wellington, and Sir Godric Everley. Godric is a stern Crown barrister who spent childhood holidays at the abbey as Burnsby’s ward.
Three concealed truths surface quickly. Burnsby’s mistress, the opera singer Sophonisba Ainsworth, has lived openly at the abbey for thirty to forty years.
Burnsby also has a hidden fourteen-year-old daughter, Ophelia, kept in a freezing nursery without a maid or proper clothes. Local rumor adds that the abbey is haunted by his three dead wives.
Genevieve does not weep or faint. She takes control of the household, befriends Ophelia, replaces her wardrobe, hires her a maid, and bonds with her over Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Burnsby’s heir, Lancelot, arrives from Paris with his new bride Colette, a wealthy French-Guyanese aristocrat titled by Napoleon. Lance married her specifically to outrage his father.
Colette immediately allies herself with Genevieve and Ophelia. Genevieve orders woolen cloaks for the servants and banishes Burnsby and Sophonisba to dine alone while the rest of the family gathers in the library.
Continue Reading: Fairydale by Veronica Lancet Summary: A Gothic Romance of Eternal Love
A heavy snowstorm buries the abbey, and tension builds between Genevieve and Godric. He had assumed she was a shallow fortune hunter, then recognized her intelligence and her sacrifice for her sister.
When Burnsby enters her bedchamber at night to assert his marital rights, Genevieve threatens him with an iron fireplace poker and drives him out. Godric, sleeping in the adjoining room behind a tapestry door, vows to protect her.
On December 23, Genevieve becomes trapped in a secret chapel passage. As hypothermia sets in, a figure in a white fox-furred cloak — the ghost of Hecuba, Burnsby’s second wife — guides her to a warm alcove by the kitchen bread oven.
Peony nuzzles her until Godric breaks through the passage and rescues her. Recovering in bed, the two confess their love, and Godric promises to marry her once her marriage is dissolved.
On Christmas Eve, Genevieve and Ophelia pry Sophonisba’s portrait from the drawing room mantel. Behind it they find a pinned document, and they replace the painting with a hidden portrait of Hecuba.
Godric produces the document: an exact copy of a 1774 parish register recording Burnsby’s marriage to Susanna Brattle, Sophonisba’s real name. Sophonisba triumphantly claims she is the true Lady Burnsby and that the later marriages were bigamous.
Godric inspects the record and finds only one witness, which makes the ceremony legally invalid under English and Scottish law. Burnsby had staged a fake wedding to keep Sophonisba as his mistress.
The family Bible then reveals that Burnsby’s first legal wife was Lily Jemima Newell, married in 1773. Aunt Mima is Lily, hidden in the abbey as an “addled relative” after a stroke and severe memory loss following Lance’s birth.
Because Lily was alive, the marriages to Hecuba, Alice, and Genevieve were all void. Godric’s inquiry into the chapel trap also shows that Mima bolted the door on Genevieve and had caused the fatal accidents of Hecuba and Alice.
The family agrees not to press charges or send Mima to an asylum because she is mentally incapacitated. She stays at the abbey, cared for comfortably.
On December 26, Lord Burnsby dies in bed of a heart attack. Lance inherits the title and estates as Count Marmont.
Lance and Colette arrange an £8,000 stipend for Sophonisba to live quietly in Paris, provided she signs a non-disclosure agreement. On December 27, Genevieve and Godric exchange vows in the abbey library under Scottish law.
Godric reveals he is heir to his uncle, making Genevieve Viscountess Everley. Four years later in Paris, the couple lives between London and Paris, and Godric and Lance have co-founded a transcontinental legal practice.
Rosie is married to a blue-eyed duke. Ophelia, now eighteen, lives with Genevieve and Godric as their cherished daughter.
Genevieve and Godric have a young daughter named Aimée, a pet pig named Petal, and newborn twins, Gillian and Hugh.
Books Like The Last Lady B
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen — A self-aware heroine navigates a supposedly haunted abbey while the novel parodies Gothic conventions.
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde — Comedic Gothic tropes meet pragmatic characters who refuse to be intimidated by a family phantom.
How to Be a Wallflower by Eloisa James — Same witty Regency voice, sharp heroine perspective, and found-family dynamics.
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn — Regency romance built on banter, family warmth, and a protective hero facing societal expectations.
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas — A heroine enters a marriage of convenience to escape family control and discovers unexpected love.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë — A Gothic country house, concealed secrets, and a woman who refuses to be governed by the men around her.
Quotes from The Last Lady B
“Being dead, Burnsby’s wives are irrelevant,” I informed my father.
“To put it vulgarly, propriety is bollocks.”
“Mastery is granted by respect. I have none for you, even more so since you resemble a bony crow in that kilt.”
“So far, I have come up with two laws of my own: Be Kind. Don’t Lie.”
“You think you’re boring,” Godric said, distinctly amused. “You’re the least boring woman I have met in my entire life.”
“Joseph kept faith even in illogical circumstances, which was a test of his love for his wife.”
“You save words like bastard for the right moment. Learning that your staff adores you is not a reason to curse.”
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Romance / Regency Romance / Gothic Satire
- Core Narrative Tropes: Marriage of convenience, financial barter, grumpy-and-sunshine pairing, Gothic parody, haunted abbey, secret passages, found family, bigamy and fake-marriage twist
- Tone & Atmosphere: Comedic, atmospheric, romantic, and sharply satirical, contrasting snowy Highland isolation with cozy fireside wit
- Primary Conflict: Genevieve navigating an unwanted, unconsummated marriage to an abusive peer while uncovering abbey secrets and protecting his neglected daughter
- Pacing Style: Episodic and fast-moving, driven by sharp dialogue and chapter-ending twists
- ISBN-10: 1420535110
- ISBN-13: 978-1420535112
- Pages: Not listed in the available product data
- Book Structure: A prologue, 37 chapters told in first person from Genevieve’s perspective, a closing note on ghosts and literary flourishes, and acknowledgments
