Duke in Distress

Sterling Sandhurst, the Duke of Somerset, ignores the duties of his title, flitting, unintentionally, into lucrative business deals and, more intentionally, into ladies’ bedchambers. Life’s just so monotonously easy for Sterling until suddenly, things start going terribly wrong. A broken spoke and carriage flip, a poisoned cup of tea, an armed assassin in the drapery. Sterling can conclude only one thing: someone wants him dead. To protect his life and find his assassin, Sterling agrees to take Elizabeth Atherton, cut-throat fighter and endlessly fascinating woman, as his fake-wife.  Life with Elizabeth is distinctly not easy. Elizabeth puts his nose to the carpets–more than once–and is entirely, enragingly immune to his debonair smile and devilish wiles. She even makes him want to be a better man, to deal with the demons of his youth, and shed the identity of careless rake and hellraiser. For the first time in his life, Sterling wants to work to win a lady’s heart. The question is, will she have him?

Elizabeth Atherton, an officer in Britain’s elite Security Service, has spent most of the last ten years fighting crime in London’s rookeries dressed as a street urchin. She’s quite content playacting chimney sweeps and scullery maids to avoid reckoning with her own broken heart. Content, that is, until she’s tasked with protecting London’s most notorious rakeshell, the Duke of Somerset. Ever the diligent officer, Elizabeth finds herself back amongst the Ton-–where she swore she’d never return– in the company of an irritatingly handsome protectee. One fake marriage, a hasty absconsion to France, an assist to the Suffragist movement, and several assassination attempts later, this is an assignment unlike any other. The most unexpected turn of events? Her bruised and battered heart may just have fallen for the duke.