My Dear Duchess

Lady Jane Lovelace has conceived the idea of approaching the most notorious man about town, Lord Charles Welbourne, with a most unique proposition. But when he counters her offer with a condition that he thinks will halt her impudence, much to the surprise of both, she accepts. A novel of passion and intrigue, The Westerby Inheritance is the first volume of this new and emotionally charged romantic saga all played out against a backdrop of elegant 18th-century society.

As the youngest of four unmarried vicar's daughters, Frederica feared her destiny was to die of boredom in the sleepy village of Barton Sub Edge. Her looks were deemed unfortunate, and her wilful manner labelled her difficult. She never dreamt the arrival of a stranger would be a twist to her fate. But Frederica and the worldly gentleman from the city, Lord Granton, had something in common: boredom. So it was that the two formed a secret friendship.

Just when he'd fobbed off the last brat, another appeared to take her place! Poor Lord Anselm! The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squired so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether. The current ward was far and away the worst. Cheeky as only a French girl could be, Yvonne de la Falaise had surely sent her papa to an early grave with her melodramatics and mischief. Thank goodness for her governess, Patricia Cottingham, so calm, so competent.

When one of her sisters is attacked by Harry Devers, the lecherous son of Mannerling's present owner, Abigail Beverley puts her obsession with reclaiming the mansion on hold. Then Abigail meets the dashing and extremely eligible Lord Burfield, fresh back from the army and in full-time pursuit of a bride. Yet unexpected circumstances force the insufferable Harry Devers to recuperate from a riding accident in the Beverley home, where Abigail's twin sister Rachel nurses him back to health - and into betrothal.

A dead employer's legacy of 5,000 pounds allows spinster Hannah Pym to resign from housekeeping and find adventure travelling the English countryside by stagecoach. But adventure soon finds Miss Pym in the form of Miss Emily Freemantle, a spoilt violet-eyed beauty fleeing an arranged marriage to a rake she has never met. When the girl's darkly handsome betrothed boards their stage, Miss Pym is certain Emily was rash to bolt from this aristocratic catch! And so as soon as the travellers repair to an inn, Miss Pym begins her matchmaking....

When the Duke of Ashbury returns from war scarred, he realises he needs an heir - which means he needs a wife! When Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress visits wearing a wedding dress, he decides on the spot that she'll do. His terms are simple: They will be husband and wife by night only. No lights, no kissing. No questions about his battle scars. Last, and most importantly...Once she's pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again. But Emma is no pushover. She has secrets and some rules of her own....

Tongues were set wagging when Elizabeth Markham's glamorous young parents were killed, sinking their only child to the unspeakable class of poor relation. Forced to live with her cruel, miserly uncle Julius, Elizabeth is forbidden to partake in the season's festivities. Marriage is her only escape, and she enacts a daring plan to trick her way into the duke of Dunster's exclusive house party, to snare one of the eligible dandies sure to dance attendance on her.

Poor Minerva. Prudish, self-righteous, and incredibly beautiful, she is to be sent to London to capture a wealthy husband. But Minerva doesn't know the first thing about flirting. The London dandies find her moralizing appalling and concoct a plan to assault her virtue - an assault that will scandalize all London society. Meanwhile, Lord Sylvester Comfrey, whom she met earlier through her father, has been keeping a careful eye on the girl. A fact she resents. She dislikes Lord Sylvester. There is something about him that disturbs her.

The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite 17th-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over mere bricks and mortar. Now it is Rachel's turn to woo the latest eligible bachelor-in-residence, handsome widower Charles Blackwood.

Lady Betty has no interest in the Duke of Collingham. She doesn't care that he's fabulously wealthy or devastatingly handsome or impeccably well dressed. All she sees is an arrogant nobleman with an abrasive personality and an annoyingly persistent streak. And the Duke of Collingham is persistent. He can have any woman in the whole of society - but the one who won't have him is the only one he wants. And he'll stop at nothing to persuade her.