AustLit

'A Duke left bitter by past betrayals, a kind-hearted lady with secrets to keep, a family trapped by the mistakes of the past, blackmail and threats confronted, a love which heals the past.

'Damien Falton, the Duke of Blackwater, has been full of bitter anger since his father’s Will reading – which revealed that everything he thought he’d known about his life was a lie. Now, over a year later, with his mourning over, he must deal with society again, for the sake of his sisters, and their chances of finding men they wish to marry. The fact that he, too, will need to marry is something he doesn’t wish to contemplate – until he meets Lady Camellia Gardenbrook. Despite all expectations, she makes him want to believe that love without betrayal is possible.

'Lady Camellia Gardenbrook hopes that she will eventually find love, as her older sisters have – but she doubts that finding a man who will accept her secrets is possible. Still, she will not give those things up – what would her life be worth, without being able to help others? When she meets the Duke of Blackwater, for the first time, she finds herself truly intrigued by a man – for he is a contradictory, confusing combination of warmth and aloofness of manner, all in a sinfully handsome package.

'As the Season progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that all is not right, and that the secrets of the past are far from forgotten, but, instead, present a threat to the future – not just for the Duke, but for his sisters, and for the other family he never knew that he had.

'Can Lady Camellia discover the source of the threats, before the Duke’s sisters are ruined? Can the Duke protect his sisters, when the identity of the person who threatens them, and him, is unknown?

'And when it all comes out in one dramatic moment, can Lady Camellia and the Duke accept the truth of their feelings, and find love? Or will the shadows of the past steal their happiness in the future?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.