Author(s): Margo Maguire

Romance

Mercy Franklin has never felt like she’s belonged. Not among the children she grew up with in her seaside town, and certainly not in the cold, strict household of her adoptive parents. When she takes a position as a governess at an estate far from anyone she’s ever known, Mercy imagines she’s found a fresh start. But when she glimpses the dark and dismal manor and its battle-scarred Earl, she wonders if she should have dared to venture so far. Nash Farris, the Earl of Ashby, has experienced more than his share of pain. A former army captain who inherited his title after the death of his two elder brothers, Nash returned home to find the Ashby properties in near ruin and to take responsibility for his eight-year-old niece. Resolved to do his duty and marry the daughter of a wealthy neighbor, Nash is content with his fate…until the gentle beauty arrives and awakens a hope he long thought dead. Mercy is drawn to the dark Earl and falls irreversibly in love with both him and his niece. But even as Nash knows he must choose duty over desire, it becomes clear his brothers’ deaths were no accident and Mercy and Nash may be in more danger than they’d ever imagined.