The Bride He Never Expected (Era of Scandals #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.