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The Bride He Never Expected: A Historical Regency Romance Novel (Era of Scandals Book 4)
“He asked the agency for a governess who was plain, sturdy, and without sentiment. He got Cynthia Browne instead.”
The Duke of Lavenham has a reputation, and none of it is kind. They say he is cold. They say he is impossible. They say his great house on the Yorkshire moors has chased off every governess foolish enough to take the post, three in as many months.
Cynthia Browne has no money, no family, and no other prospects. She also has no intention of running.
What she finds at Lavenham Hall is not the brute the village describes, but a man worn thin by sorrow, and a little girl who has not spoken a word in months. The duke is guarded, exacting, and entirely certain he does not require a governess with opinions. Cynthia has a great many opinions, and an unshakeable habit of telling the truth, even when a wiser woman would hold her tongue.
Slowly, against every rule of propriety and good sense, the cold house begins to warm. The child begins to smile. And the duke begins to look at his unexpected governess as though she might be the one bright thing in a life he had long since given up on.
But Cynthia is beginning to suspect that the gossip surrounding the family has the story entirely wrong, and that someone took great care to keep it that way. If she is right, she can hand the duke back the good name that was stolen from him, and give one small girl the future she deserves. If she is wrong, she will lose the only home her heart has ever wanted.
A governess was never meant to fall in love with a duke.
But then, he was never meant to fall in love with her, either.
A warm, sweeping, completely clean Regency romance, a brooding duke, a fearless heroine, a child to cherish, and a slow burn worth every page.
No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a happily ever after that will leave you smiling long after the final page.
Also, available with Kindle Unlimited.
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The Notorious Duke’s Governess: A Historical Regency Romance Book (Beastly Dukes of the Ton 2)
“No one had stayed for Mel Grace since she was sixteen years old, and the most scandalous duke in England was the last man on earth she expected to ask her to.”
Mel is a governess of twenty-six, practical, observant, with no family and no fortune and one quiet certainty no one knows she carries: that hoping for more than she has is the surest way to be disappointed. Her father walked out of her life when she was a girl, and she has not allowed herself to wait for anyone since.
So when Hartfell House in remote Cornwall offers her a generous salary to teach three wild little girls no one else can manage, she takes it expecting nothing. A roof. A wage. Three difficult children she can probably handle. The same arrangement she has had in four other houses.
What she finds is something else.
Annabelle, Viola, and Thistle are six years old, brilliant, and being raised on three days of attention a month from a mysterious benefactor named Mr. Langford. Within a week, Mel has earned their trust. Within a month, she has worked out the truth their benefactor has spent five years hiding. These are not his nieces. They are his daughters. And Mr. Langford is not a quiet country gentleman at all. He is Rhys, Duke of Trevane, London’s most notorious rake, who has spent fifteen years building a fortress of scandal around himself because the truth is too painful to carry alone.
He expected her to leave the moment she discovered it. He did not expect her to stay.
Rhys has never met a woman who looked at him without seeing the title, the fortune, or the scandal sheets. Mel sees a tired father trying to be better than he was raised to be, and she tells him so, plainly, the way she tells everyone everything. And slowly, evening by evening in a study lit by a single fire, the rake and the governess discover that being seen by one honest person is more terrifying, and more healing, than either of them is prepared for.
But society does not let men like Rhys keep secrets forever. And when the truth about his three little girls is finally dragged into the light, Mel will have to decide whether the woman who has spent ten years not waiting for anyone is brave enough, at last, to stay.
A deeply emotional Regency romance about loneliness, healing, found family, and the courage to believe in love again when life has taught you not to hope for it.
Filled with tender moments, slow-burning passion, and a brooding duke no one truly understands, this heartfelt story will stay with you long after the final page.
No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a beautifully satisfying happily ever after.
