Blackhaven Brides

Orphan Gillie Muir makes ends meet by holding genteel card parties for friends and visitors to the newly fashionable spa town of Blackhaven. But when Lord Wickenden, known as the Wicked Baron, makes her a shocking proposal, her world is turned upside down. Jaded and bored, Lord Wickenden has his own reasons for joining the house party at Braithwaite Castle. One of them is to oblige an ex-mistress by detaching her son from the local gaming den hussy who has ensnared him. But, confronted by Gillie's unexpected charm and innocence, Wickenden abandons his original plan of simply taking her for himself. Instead, he becomes embroiled in her bizarre problems, which include saving her reputation and her life, keeping the Watch away from her card parties, and hiding an injured smuggler who was once kind to her. The infuriating and devastating Wickenden soon has Gillie's heart in a spin. But when she discovers he means to fight a duel over her-and everyone knows the wicked baron never misses-she'll go to any length to save his life and his soul. Even elope with another man.

The scandalous widow . . . and the curate? Newly widowed, wicked Kate Crowmore is in trouble. Scandal has broken over her head and someone is trying to kill her. When she seeks refuge in Blackhaven, she doesn't expect a clergyman to be the solution to both these problems! Tristram Grant is not just any clergyman. The cast-off, illegitimate son of an earl, and a one-time army officer of great promise, the charismatic new curate is making his mark in Blackhaven. As soon as he sees the beautiful, defiant Kate, he sets his heart on her. And he is used to achieving his goals. But Kate, finally free of a disastrous marriage that almost broke her, has no intention of marrying anyone ever again-supposing she survives the attempts on her life. Grant's courtship, like his pursuit of her enemies, is unorthodox, fun, and curiously seductive. However, he has secrets of his own and when he deliberately frees a French prisoner of war, Kate realizes he could be more dangerous than she imagined. Then, as if life isn't complicated enough, her old scandal catches us with her again, in the shape of Lord Vernon, whom the world imagines is her lover-and he wants to marry her too . . .

At eight-and-twenty, Lady Arabella Niven is gentle, sickly, and firmly on the shelf. Having disobliged her father by refusing her last chance of marriage, she has been sent in disgrace to Blackhaven with two domineering aunts. Her one wish is to be left alone in a quiet cottage to write books on history. However, everything changes when she tries to rescue a naked man apparently drowning at sea. Thus begins an odd, fun friendship that quickly becomes passionate. For Captain Alban, the hero with a shady past, is rebellious and unconventional by nature. Marriage between such a man and a duke's daughter is inconceivable, and yet Alban's feelings for her drive him to face his past in order to create a new future that would be unendurable without her. Oppressive family, neglected children, fortune hunters, past loves, and old crimes all contrive to keep the pair apart. But when danger threatens Alban, it is the duke's gentle daughter who rides to his rescue.