A young widow flees the estate of her loveless marriage and reunites with the man who once broke her heart in Sarah Ladd's latest Regency romance.
When Charlotte's cruel husband dies unexpectedly, her first instinct is to protect her infant son from his father's family. She takes him to Hollythorne House, the home in the Yorkshire moors she inherited from her own family. But her former brother-in-law isn't so eager to let the child, the only heir to the family's fortune, slip through his fingers. He hires guards to "protect" them, never expecting that one of the guards is a man Charlotte knew long ago, a man she has tried to forget.
Anthony returned to England from the Battle of New Orleans a changed man, the scar on his face a physical sign of the wounds he carries. While he was away, he lost his only family and gained an inheritance he isn't quite ready to face. Instead, he and his best friend signed up as "thief-takers," a precursor to Scotland Yard. He never could have imagined the job taking him back home, back to the woman he left on the moors.
Once they arrive at a dilapidated Hollythorne House, the dust and cobwebs show that the house has been largely ignored in the years since Charlotte's parents passed away. Lacking the number of servants she's accustomed to, Charlotte must tackle the once-unthinkable (for a lady of her station) task of cleaning up the place, but the past is never far from her mind. The threat of danger targeting her young son finally forces her to make a choice: trust the man who left her years ago or risk losing everything she holds dear.
- Sweet Regency romance with a thread of mystery
- The second book in the Houses of Yorkshire series, which can be read in any order
- Set in the same time period as Bridgerton and Poldark
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
Ladd, Sarah E.