She thought he worked for the Duke. She was half right.

Clara Finch knows her place. Orphaned at eleven and raised on a viscount's charity, she is now a governess, and belongs to neither the drawing room nor the servants' hall. All she wants is a cottage of her own one day.

Then a stranger on a bay horse runs her into a ditch in a Derbyshire lane, and keeps coming back.

He lets her believe he is the Duke of Wenlock's man. By the time she learns he is the Duke, she has spent a night in his arms, lost her position, and refused him twice.

Alexander Trevelyan has spent his life paying for his father's sins. Clara is the first thing he has ever wanted for himself.

But someone wants the Duke of Wenlock dead. And the closer Clara comes to his heart, the closer she stands to the line of fire.

She has never asked for anything. Will she fight for him?

A steamy Regency romance with a secret identity, a forced marriage, a duke who falls first, and a governess who refuses to be rescued.

For reviewers

Tropes: duke in disguise · governess heroine · class divide · compromised into marriage · forced proximity · she saves him · he falls first · slow burn · HEA · Friends to lovers · found family · her childhood crush loses his shine

Heat level: open door, with several explicit scenes.

Content notes: attempted murder, gun violence and an on-page death (the villain); the deaths of several parents before the story begins, including a drink-related accident; gambling and alcoholism mentioned. A horse is injured and recovers fully. No animals die.

Please note: Amazon requires reviews of free copies to say so. Please add a line such as “I received a free advance copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.”