The
Characters:
Justin,
Duke of Kestrel, owns Kestrel Court.
His arrival in Suffolk sets the county all a-flutter. The
most eligible aristocrat in the
Ton,
Justin is much sought after in Midwinter society. But can
any lady catch him when he still carries a torch for his
old love...
Lady Sally
Saltire married Justin Kestrel's
best friend in preference to him! Now a widow, Lady Sally
is back in Midwinter and hosts the Midwinter Ladies
Reading Society, a group of the most beautiful
bluestockings in the neighbourhood. They are a supreme
temptation to Justin and to his brothers...
Lord
Richard Kestrel is the most
notorious rake in the Ton
and
his younger brother Lord Lucas
Kestrel scarcely less of a danger
to the reputation of a lady. Together with their friend
Cory,
Lord Newlyn, the gentlemen pose a
formidable threat to the virtue of the Midwinter ladies...
But can the
bluestockings outwit the rakes?
Miss Rachel
Odell has no time for scoundrels.
She has grown up with Cory Newlyn and thinks that she
knows everything there is to know about him, and that she
will never see him as anything other than a friend. The Cory comes to
work on her father's archaeological dig and against her will, Rachel
begins to see him in a new light...
The
Honourable Mrs Deborah Stratton has
already rejected Lord Richard Kestrel's advances once,
even though she is hopelessly attracted to him. Can
she keep Richard at arm's length and sort out the unhappy
marriage of her sister Olivia, Lady
Marney, at the same time?
And what of the
mysterious glass engraver,
Miss
Rebecca Raleigh? Is she all that
she seems - and can she keep her most intimate secrets
safe from Lord Lucas Kestrel?
When the rakes set
their minds to seduction can the bluestocking resist? And will the
gentlemen find that when they gamble on love they lose their hearts?