Summary
He was sworn to protect her virtue.
He didn't expect to lose his heart.
William Easton, the Duke of Blackwood, returns from self-imposed exile with a single, grim duty: save his crumbling estate and marry off his ward. He expects to find a child. Instead, he finds a firebrand of twenty-one who writes radical pamphlets, rejects every suitor, and challenges his authority at every turn. William is a man of iron control, but his ward’s defiance sparks a frustration - and a fascination - he cannot afford.
Genevieve has no intention of being sold to the highest bidder. She yearns for freedom, not a marriage of convenience. But when a deadly influenza sweeps through the manor, the strict boundaries between guardian and ward begin to dissolve. As William nurses her back to health with a tenderness that belies his stern exterior, Genevieve sees the man beneath the title. But their growing closeness invites scandal. When a malicious rival threatens to ruin Genevieve’s reputation, William must make an impossible choice: uphold the honor of his lineage, or sacrifice everything to save the woman who has become his world.
