All the Duke of Dunfallon wants this holiday season is a respite from the machinations of the matchmakers. When pursued by a particularly determined would-be duchess, he ducks into the West Bartholomew Street Lending Library. Librarian Emerald Armstrong sees a dapper gent in a bit of a hurry and mistakes Dunfallon for a curate overdue for his assignation with West Bart's theological collection.Dunfallon is intrigued by Emmie's love of books, her disdain for society's games, and her ferocious generosity of spirit toward all of the library's patrons. She has no patience with posturing, and thus he takes the risk of admitting his true identity. To his surprise, Emmie doesn't mind all that much that he's a duke--some things cannot be helped--but she is far less willing to keep silent about Dunfallon's other secret, the one he has been guarding from even his fellow peers. If an honest woman is worth more than rubies, what will a duke sacrifice to earn her love?Note: This story was half of Yuletide Gems, a novella duet originally published as a web store/library exclusive in 2022.
A dogged investigation... Lord Julian Caldicott is summoned to the country home of a family friend to look for a prize foxhound who's gone missing. The purloined canine turns out to be only the tail of a series of puzzles involving family secrets, slander, blackmail, and fraud. Matters grow more baffling when Julian is told to drop the investigation, though suspects abound, motives are multiplying apace, and a large sum of money has come into play.Hounded by mischief... Julian survives an attempt on his life, and endures slights to his honor rather than give up on his objective. Before the truth is revealed-and the hound brought safely home-he will have to choose between protecting his only surviving brother from ruin, or allowing a scoundrel to get away with the next thing to murder.
Tremaine St. Michael is firmly in trade and seeks only to negotiate the sale of some fancy sheep with the Earl of Bellefonte. The earl's sister, Lady Nita, is pragmatic, hard-working, and selfless, though Tremaine senses she's also tired of her charitable obligations and envious of her siblings' marital bliss.Tremaine, having been raised among shepherds, can spot another lonely soul, no matter how easily she fools her own family. Neither Tremaine nor Nita is looking for love, but love comes looking for them.
Don't be so dramatic!Gavin DeWitt has given up a career on the stage to take his place among the respectable gentry of Crosspatch Corners. His older sister has married quite well, and now it's Gavin's job to ensure he and his younger siblings make an excellent impression on polite society too. He's handsome, witty, charming-and quietly dying inside from lack of purpose-but nonetheless playing the role of country gentleman desperately well.Will it be kisses... or curtains? Enter Mrs. Rose Roberts, a widow from Gavin's theatrical past. She broke his heart when last they parted, but oddly enough, he broke her heart too. Can they piece together what really happened and forge a future together, despite the forces of mischief and mayhem plotting more fiercely than ever to keep them apart?
She's learned to ask for nothing...Miss Hecate Brompton is on the shelf and relieved to finally be there with her personal wealth in tact. She faces enough challenges keeping her rackety family from scandal and ruin without the added bother of marriage. When Phillip Vincent approaches her with a request to become his de facto finishing governess, she's both appalled by and sympathetic to his plan. She was once the awkward outsider, and knows exactly how treacherous the waters of the Beau Monde can be for the unsuspecting.To win her love, he will sacrifice everything.Phillip is mere gentry at heart, and the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair leave him frankly bored. For the sake of his family he must nonetheless learn to do the pretty. Miss Hecate Brompton, is anything but glittering. She's quiet, proper, plain, and-to Phillip-utterly fascinating. He sees what society does not: Behind Hecate's demure facade lurks a fierce heart and a brilliant mind.Hecate's family has no quarrel with Phillip stealing her heart, but her fortune and her hand in marriage are quite another matter. Can the squire and spinster find a happily ever after when all of polite society intends to deny them exactly that?
Daniel Banks is a man of the cloth whose vocation is the last comfort he has left. In an attempt to start his life over, Daniel accepts the post of vicar in Haddondale, a position supported by the Earl of Bellefonte. There Daniel meets Lady Kirsten Haddonfield, to whom life has also dealt multiple unkind blows. Daniel's interest is piqued by Kirsten's unsentimental attitude toward her misfortunes, and by the kind-heartedness the lady keeps well hidden. Kirsten is much taken with Mr. Banks and his genuine compassion for others, despite his own troubles. When Providence intervenes, and Daniel and Kirsten can become engaged, their happiness seems complete.... though every garden has at least one nasty, sly, determined serpent
Will Dorning, as the Earl of Casriel's heir, and older brother to four rambunctious brothers, sees his life as one of duty and drudgery. He guards the earl's back, and keeps a watchful eye on his siblings, though his only real companions are the dogs he's treasured since boyhood; Lady Susannah Haddonfield has no patience with loud, smelly beasts of any species, but must learn to appear to like dogs so as not to offend her sister's only marital prospect. Susannah turns to Will, an acquaintance from the most awkward years of her adolescence, to teach her how to get along with canines. Will instead teaches her how to get along with him, and with her siblings, until Susannah must choose between her favorite lone wolf and placid propriety.
Lord Julian Caldicott, still recovering from his years at war, is tasked with investigating the circumstances of a small boy who could be either the salvation of the Waltham dukedom or a pawn in a scheme to sink the Caldicott family in endless scandal. The boy is alone in the world, though any one of several women might be his mother, and they all claim that Julian's brother, the late Lord Harry Caldicott, was the child's father.To uncover the boy's parentage, Julian must face demons from his own past, solve puzzles left behind by Lord Harry, and thwart enemies who wish the lad harm for reasons of their own. His investigation takes him from barracks, to brothels, to Hyde Park by dark of night. The longer he searches, the more tangled-and dangerous-the mystery becomes, for Julian and for the innocent child who deserves to know the truth of his own birthright.
Psyche Fremont has known two constants in life: Her passion for her art, and society's determination to ignore her talent. She isn't looking for anything other than a handsome model when she crosses paths with Michael Delancey, and he's only interested in making a few discreet coins lounging about in the altogether. Both Michael and Psyche are guarding secrets, but when love blooms, can they continue to guard their hearts?
A matter of matrimony... Lord Julian Caldicott is summoned to the family seat by his ducal brother, whose bachelorhood is imperiled by the very determined Lady Clarissa Valmond. As the only titled Eligible the hostesses avoid including on their guest lists, Julian has little sympathy for the duke's situation. He nonetheless agrees to lend a hand, because Clarissa is the last person who should be wearing the Caldicott family tiara....and mayhem! The situation takes a nasty turn when Clarissa's brother, a talented artist, goes missing shortly before his debut London exhibition. Julian must unravel conflicting motives, dishonest witnesses, confusing evidence, old lies, and the real threats facing the duke if he's to find the errant viscount before a fate worse than ruin befalls both surviving Caldicott brothers.
Lord Julian Caldicott has come home from the war in ragged health and with a reputation in tatters. All he wants is to recuperate in private without bringing any further scandal on the family's good name. His godmother inveigles him into serving as her escort to a rural house party, whereupon circumstances conspire to prevent Julian from resuming his reclusive existence.Julian becomes the subject of rumors, lies, and whispers, and soon he's faced with a choice: Wage one more battle for honor's sake, or be branded a traitor to all that he holds dear. He will enlist unlikely allies, face old demons, and vex every other guest on the premises, but he will not stop until he's brought a criminal to justice-or dies trying.
Trevor, Marquess of Tavistock, has finally decided to stop larking around on the Continent, come home, and take a bride. His solicitors applaud his decision to settle down, provided he chooses a wealthy young lady to be his marchioness. Those years Trevor spent seeing the world were bad years for the lordly coffers.Trevor is reluctant to consign himself to a mercenary marriage, and instead considers selling off some of his smaller properties. While inspecting one such estate, he meets Miss Amaryllis DeWitt. Her family is desperately trying to find a title for her to marry, and she does have the most lovely fortune, but she thinks Trevor is an aspiring beer merchant, and he thinks the truth might get him drop-kicked back to France. Then there's the tenant Trevor finds on another estate, whose existence the solicitors have been trying to hide...Will it be truth or true love for Trevor and Amaryllis?
Lady Violet and Sebastian MacHeath are trying to forge a cordial marriage out of unlikely beginnings. When they are invited to a summer house party, they accept, hoping to make the excursion into a belated wedding journey of sorts-or at least a respite from meddling relatives. No sooner do they arrive, than their host's ward is accused of petty wrongdoing. As the charges escalate into familial acrimony and worse, Violet determines that a scheme is afoot to discredit the young man.Unraveling the mystery before a criminal investigation goes too far will require that Sebastian and Violet trust one another as they haven't in years. They can get to the bottom of the unfortunate developments at the house party, but can they solve the mystery of how to be husband and wife in more than name?
A Kiss by the SeaHe's not really a blacksmith, and she's not really an heiress...Thaddeus Pennrith finds a way to recover from multiple griefs when he accepts the blacksmith's post at Fenwick on Sea. Village life gives him a sense of belonging that Polite Society never could, though he must resume his aristocratic duties soon. Along comes Lady Sarah Weatherby, refugee from an engagement gone badly awry, and Thaddeus is faced with both a compelling reason to reveal his titled antecedents, and a longing to keep them forever hidden....NOTE: This story originally appeared in the Bluestocking Belles' anthology, Storm and Shelter, where you will find more tales of romance by the seaside!When His Grace FallsThe very proper Duke of Emory, lampooned in the popular satire How to Ruin A Duke, suspects that the author of his misfortune is Lady Edith Charbonneau. He sets out to ruin her before she can write a sequel, except... what if he's wrong, and she's not his enemy after all? Edith, formerly companion to His Grace's difficult mother, has plenty of reasons for her dim view of the duke's household, but the man himself has never been one of them. Will they learn to trust another, or embark on a war of words, wit, and wanton kisses? This novella originally appeared in the novella duet, How to Ruin a Duke, published in 2019 and no longer available as a duet.
Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, exercises the pragmatism for which he's infamous when his preferred choice of bride cries off, and her companion, Lady Thea Collins, becomes his next choice for his duchess. Lady Thea is mature, sensible and even rather attractive-what could possibly go wrong?As a woman fallen on hard times, Thea doesn't expect tender sentiments from His Grace, but she does wish Noah had courted her trust, lest her past turn their hastily arranged marriage into a life of shared regrets. Is His Grace courting a convenient wife, or a ducal disaster?
If it''s not weddings, then hapless widows are expected to attending christenings... Lady Violet returns with St. Sevier to her family seat, and finds Derwent Hall at sixes and sevens upon the occasion of her nephew''s christening. Other guests have brought their children along to celebrate the occasion, and Sebastian MacHeath is on hand to serve as godfather.Nobody seems to be getting along, despite the happy nature of the gathering. Summer heat builds to an unbearable crescendo as clandestine affairs, marital troubles, and family tensions escalate. Then somebody starts stealing little girls, and Lady Violet must figure out who, why, and how the kidnapper can be foiled.
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