LADY DUKE – Coming in 2026
Louise Harrington, Viscount Linden, hasn’t spared a thought for marriage–she lives for horse racing and spending her family’s money. Her mother, the Duke of Ingersoll, is done indulging her heir’s extravagances and gives Louise an ultimatum: find a husband immediately or be cut off. Louise must host a house party for five gentlemen and choose a fiancé from among them. Unwilling to face a frugal future, Louise sets off to Ivy Hatch, her long-neglected country seat, to ready it for guests.
Upon her arrival, Louise finds the estate in disrepair and engages the help of the village carpenter. Hugh James, a young widower, is estranged from his family and hasn’t seen his daughter since she was born. To protect her from his own cruel mother, he has kept his daughter hidden and has built a life away from her in purposeful obscurity. Hugh is successfully living an uneventful existence until the day Viscount Linden rides into town.
As they work together to restore the estate, the Viscount decides Hugh is the perfect candidate for one final fling. Hugh’s fierce attraction to Louise overwhelms his self-protective ways, and he agrees to a clandestine affair despite the risks to his reputation and livelihood.
When the houseguests arrive, Louise should focus on choosing an eligible husband but none of the aristocratic men inflame her as the carpenter does. They both know the affair must end, but they continue to turn from the inevitable and toward each other. The real world comes to call when someone from Hugh’s past finds him in Ivy Hatch. Hugh’s secrets unravel and he leaves the village for good, just as Louise realizes how deeply she has fallen for him. With her mother’s deadline looming, Louise must choose: either ask for the hand of a man she doesn’t love, or follow her heart and damn the consequences.
THE VISCOUNT TAKES A HUSBAND
Mélanie Jarvis, Viscount Acton, has a wonderful life. True, her high-spirited sister can be a lot to handle, and true, she would give up her title if it meant she could have her mother back for only a moment. But she has a doting step-father, an outrageous uncle, and a circle of friends that are the envy of London. So why, when one of those friends gets married, does Mélanie find herself fleeing the wedding breakfast to have a panic attack?
In order to get her life under control, Mélanie devises a plan to be married by the end of the year. She resolves to spend this Season in London actively looking for a husband she can reasonably tolerate. To narrow down her choices, she enlists the aid of Tommy Harrington. The youngest brother of her friend Louise, Tommy made a sensation upon his debut into society just last year. He received many eligible offers but is holding out for a love match—as the son of a duke he can afford to be picky. Now in his second season, Tommy is popular among the young debutants and knows Mélanie well, so he is uniquely positioned to advise her on a good match. He only asks for one thing in return: that she teaches him how to make a woman fall in love with him.
With Tommy’s help, Mélanie refines her choices to a list of five gentlemen. Tommy is being coy about who he intends to attract, but requests lessons on how to draw a woman to his side from across the ballroom, and how to keep her there. The bouquets pile up in Tommy’s foyer, proving him to be a quick study. With each technique Tommy masters, Mélanie steps further from her own plan and closer to a highly improper entanglement with her best friend’s little brother. She has been used to thinking of Tommy as a young pup, but it has become all too evident that he is a grown man who outshines anyone on her list. Before Tommy Harrington gets engaged to another woman, will she realize the perfect match has been in front of her all along?
THE EARL AND HER GIRL
Norah Phillips, Earl of Breadalbane, has a reputation in London. She pursues attractive women with the same cheerful determination she brings to winning a regatta, but her affairs rarely last very long. The only consistent women in her life have been her three best friends–the Spades. Each of them has succumbed to the matrimonial state, and with her former drinking buddies now spending more time with their families than carousing, Norah decides it is time to bring more purpose to her life. Instead of taking naps in the House of Ladies, she begins to take an interest in politics and applies to the Duke of Ingersoll for guidance.
Delia Harrington, known to the Spades as Dreadful Delia, has always been a do-gooder. Delia works as a political aide to her powerful aunt, the Duke of Ingersoll. She owes everything to her aunt, who took her in after her parents died abroad when she was only eight. Growing up, Delia actively avoided getting dragged into her cousin Louise’s plots, and of all the Spades, she always found Norah to be the most reckless. When the Duke tells her to steer the Earl of Breadalbane to their political advantage, Delia is strongly tempted to tell her aunt no for the first time in her life. She does NOT want to babysit the Earl of Breadalbane, who has always been more focused on pretty faces than politics.
Forced to get along for the greater good, Norah discovers that Delia is not as Dreadful as her moniker implied. She remains resistant to Norah’s charms, but fortunately she seems to be the only woman in the ton who is unmoved by the earl. Years of flirting have made Norah adept at political maneuvering. Buoyed by her new success, Norah invests a large sum of money in a promising venture. When she goes to check on the status of her investment, she finds the brokers have left London and absconded with half the ton’s money. Furthermore, the mysterious brokers turn out to be Delia’s parents, back from the dead. Delia and Breadalbane get drawn into a cross-country chase and Delia begins to question everything–who she is, why her aunt lied to her, and whether the reason she has never seriously courted a man is because she prefers women. Perhaps one woman in particular. Meanwhile Norah is surprised by how protective she feels of Delia and wonders if this new tenderness might mean something more. Is Dreadful Delia Harrington really the one woman who can tame the earl?