A cat, a raven, and a missing ring lead to scandal for the old earl's bastard grandson and the baker's daughter. The missing heir to the Earl of Ravenstone has come forward, cutting out Fletcher Graham's brother. The new heir offers proof of his identity in the form of a family signet ring. When the ring disappears, Fletch suspects a woman he saw leaving his grandfather's office, and he resolves to confront her. She's no servant, however, she's the baker's daughter, a savvy businesswoman. Her determination to help confounds him as much as his growing attraction to her. Supplying ginger biscuits and apple tarts to Ravenstone Castle brought Anna Hale fame and a brisk business. A missing ring threatens that business, and her champion mouser appears to be in the middle of the mystery. Anna inserts herself into the investigation only to find herself caught in a scandal that leads to a sham betrothal. She knows she must find a way out of it; she just isn't sure she wants to.

As the Duchess of Haverford's companion, Cedrica Grenford is not treated as a poor relation and is encouraged to mingle with Her Grace's guests. Perhaps among the gentlemen gathered for the duchess's house party, she will find a suitable husband? Marcel Fournier has only one ambition: to save enough from his fees serving as chef in the houses of the ton to become the proprietor of his own fine restaurant. An affair with the duchess's dependent would be dangerous. Anything else is impossible. Isn't it? This book was first published in the Bluestocking Belles' holiday collection Holly and Hopeful Hearts, and is also available as an ebook from most eretailers.

Lord Brisbane, the Bear of the North thought he'd snatched up a beautiful blonde bride but when he goes to collect his wife-by-proxy, he finds himself wed to her cousin instead. Gina Marie hated decieving a stranger for her own gain, but she was desperate for a way out from under her uncle's control. When Bane rejects their marriage on sight - she's certain all of her hopes are dashed. But a forgotten pair of gloves and an unexpected streak of posessiveness from her brand new husband catapaults her into the life of a Marquis' wife, on her way to her new home. But what neither of them expected was the enemy from the past that shadows them all the way home.

The words graceful, proper, ladylike and elegant could never be used to describe Perrie Beresford, the eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Ashwood. Perrie has always had a little too much fire in her to ever be classified as a beautiful young debutante, which is what she will inevitably become in her first Season. But romance, courting, and marriage are the last things on Perrie's mind. Especially when her nemesis, who was once an annoying classmate, suddenly appears in her home as her father's protégé. As Perrie is pushed towards the life of an adult by those around her, she can't help but be pulled into a game of wars within the walls of her very home. But Perrie is about to learn that the line between love and hate are very fine ... and perhaps might not even exist at all.

At three and twenty, Lady Susanna Beresford is at dire risk of being considered an old maid, though she is determined that nothing but the deepest love will incline her to marry, a fact that deeply vexes her mother. As the season closes in 1810 and Susanna prepares to return home to Hertfordshire unattached, she meets the very man who will indeed change her life forever. A man whom high society would deem inappropriate and forbidden based on the very colour of his skin. But there is more to this man than meets the eye, and their meeting sets in motion a series of events that will undoubtably change society as they know it forever.

Sophia has sacrificed everything for her younger sister, Lucy. She has removed them from the only home they ever knew, taken on the care of Lucy's illegitimate son, George, and even assumed the role of a widow and mother in order to erase all hint of scandal from the boy's birth. But rumor continues to follow them like the darkest of clouds, and Sophia must adapt to her new existence as a false widow with no prospects beyond the doors of her small cottage. Lord Haughton - "Finn" to those close to him - will stop at nothing to prevent the slightest whiff of disgrace from tainting his family's name. When he learns of his younger brother's latest indiscretion-one that leaves a bastard child in his wake-Haughton rushes across the country to offer the boy's mother a comfortable living in exchange for her silence about the child's true parentage. But he arrives only to have his generous offer thrown back in his face by Sophia Brixton, a sharp-tongued and sharper-witted woman who proceeds to toss him out of her house. But just because he is banished from her home does not mean he is so easily banished from her life.

To save her family from scandal, Emily Collicott must marry. Ruined in her first season in London, she is given no choice but to wed her father's pick for a husband, or be cast out from her home. Emily agrees to marry William Hazlitt, a man she hardly knows. But William remembers her. Growing up as a tenant on her father's estate, he admired her from afar, their lives kept separate first by class, and then by loss. Emily seeks to begin a new life with this quiet man to whom she finds herself wedded. But the scandal she escaped in London soon finds her again, the very man who destroyed her reputation threatening to tear down the happiness she's found with her new husband. To keep from losing everything, she must either make a deal with a devil... or learn how to destroy one.

Scarred and broken from a disastrous marriage, Laura Maidstone vows never to love again. And it's not love, when she seduces Richard Armiger, Lord Albroke, on her library room floor. It's only desire. And anger. And loneliness. Which, as she discovers, can be quite as dangerous... COMPLETED

James Redwood has always loved women and feared marriage. When his parents force him into an arranged marriage against his will, he finds himself engaged to a woman he cannot stand and powerless to avoid what he fears the most. His only hope lies in prudish Grace Follet, his unwanted fiancee: if she breaks the engagement, he will be free. But how can James make Grace break the engagement when she has everything to gain by marrying him and everything to lose by leaving him?

With her reputation in tatters and a baby to look after, Catherine Balley is given a single chance at redemption: marry the man she once betrayed, a man who has every reason to hate her. * * * * * Seduced, ruined, and abandoned, Cate spends her days looking after her illegitimate baby, Luke, and trying not to think about the past she lost and the future she will now never have. When David Demery, the man she was once engaged to, offers to honour his promise and marry her, Cate cannot refuse: it is the only chance she will ever have to repair her reputation and protect Luke's future. But just because Demery is willing to marry her doesn't mean he's willing to love her: she broke his heart once, and he is determined not to let her do it again. Even if this time Cate's own heart is at risk of breaking too.