NCW Libraries

Once the countess of Riverdale, widowed Viola decides to run off with Marcel, the Marquess of Dorchester, but they soon find themselves victims of the age's ideas of respectability.

"Sophia Armitage was a friend, indeed. She had agreed to help Sir Nathaniel Gascoigne find a husband for his cousin Lavina in the glittering city of London-only half hoping to find one for herself. Sophia knew the odds were against her. Men simply did not seem to be attracted to her-not in that way. Even her late husband had treated Sophia more as a companion than a lover. But than something shocking in London-Sophia found herself in the arms of Nathaniel...

"From the New York Times bestselling author of the Survivor's Club novels comes "an epic love story" (Publishers Weekly) of intrigue and deception and the promises that can break a heart ... "I will love you all my life and even beyond that." Even at fifteen, Jeanne, the privileged daughter of a royalist émigré knew what she liked: Englishman Robert Blake, bastard son of a marquess. Yet his questionable birth rendered him forbidden. Forced to part,...

Giles Fairhaven, Viscount Kincade, does not believe his life can get much worse after his purse is stolen at an inn before he has paid his bill and then he is set upon by three ruffians in the inn yard before he can leave. But it does grow worse when a little slip of a lady clad only in a flannel nightgown and wielding a large black man's umbrella comes to his rescue and puts his assailants to rout and then - after he has left - pays his reckoning...

A Rogue's Downfall. The Anniversary. After the Earl of Reardon, one of London's most notorious rakes, ruined the virtue and reputation of a young lady at a masquerade ball on Valentine's Day, he did the honorable thing and married her before settling her at his country estate and abandoning her there. Now, one year later, he has returned home to his wife and young son, wondering if it is too late to woo her properly and make amends for a year of shameful...

A very proper aristocrat, who always does his duty and never sets a foot wrong, the young Duke of Mitford is on his way into the country to propose marriage, sight unseen, to a young lady of equal virtue and propriety chosen for him by his grandfather and hers. For once in his life, Paul decides to have a little adventure by traveling there incognito and without his usual ducal entourage. He finds the experience disappointing until at an inn one evening...

Jessica Moore, demure governess to a spoiled young girl who is expecting a marriage proposal from the Earl of Rutherford, a guest in her father's home, is unwise enough to creep downstairs to the library one night when she cannot sleep, to choose a book to read. There she is discovered, first by the earl, and then by her employer. Though she is quite innocent of any wrongdoing, she is dismissed without notice and without a character. The earl, conscience-stricken,...

Geoffrey, the new Viscount Astor, needs a wife. Since he sets no great store by love and romance, he decides it would be eminently sensible to offer marriage to one of the three daughters of his predecessor. He has never met any of them and has no preference. He leaves the choice to them and their mother. Arabella, the middle daughter, volunteers to make the sacrifice and marry the earl since her older, far more lovely, sister is already in love...

Seven years ago, Christopher Atwell, newly and happily married to Lady Elizabeth Ward, was framed for several misdemeanors. When no one, even his wife, would believe his protestations of innocence, he fled to Canada, while Elizabeth's powerful father arranged for a divorce. But now Christopher has inherited an earldom upon the death of his own father and has returned to England to take up his responsibilities-and prove his innocence. The first thing...

Jack Frazer is resigned to spending Christmas in the country with his family, even knowing that his grandmother has invited a young lady and her family with the specific intention of matchmaking for him. His grandmother has also invited the newly widowed Isabella, Comtesse de Vacheron, an acclaimed actress, and her two children. The whole family is delighted to have the comtesse among them to enliven their traditional family theatricals. All except...