Isabella Hartfield has long suspected her marriage of convenience seven years ago to an aging Marquess was the motive for Tristan's sudden military enlistment. For years she has harbored guilt over driving him into danger. Now, she is widowed and Tristan has returned. In an attempt to repair the ...
Now, the burden of Roberta’s gossip and the knowledge that Alasdair had an understanding with another marred the straightforward reaction she might otherwise have had. How was she to respond? Marianne let Alasdair hand her into the rowboat. The others were already launched into the current of the...
A half smile played at his lips as he reread the simple note that had arrived for him that morning-all two sentences of it-written in her forthright manner. Audrey St. Clair had a plan. She would discuss it with him at the polo match later that afternoon. Her letter was the best piece of correspo...
Close by, young boys played with toy ships in the park’s boat pond. She watched them idly, drinking in the little pleasures of the day. It had been years since she’d indulged in an afternoon picnic and lazed around afterwards on a blanket. Never had she done so with a gentleman, like she did toda...
There were lessons in the meticulous details of each context: seating arrangements, table settings, which fork to use at dinner parties, instruction in popular card games such as Cassino, Speculation, and Commerce along with the mastery of dancing and the delicacies of small talk. There were also...
Leaning against a pillar in the respectably crowded ballroom, Tristan conceded that he could not have contrived a better event himself. Two attributes of the affair worked in his favor. First, the moderate population of people who attended the Winter Season abetted his need for a quiet re-entry. ...