Showing results by author "Martha Keyes" in All Categories

William Yorke faces a tall order: convince people he is worthy of the Dukedom of Rockwood that has unexpectedly fallen to him. Returning from London to his enormous estate, he breaks his journey at an inn and finds himself witness to a drunkard selling his wife to the highest bidder. William outbids the coarse competition and offers the woman a position as housemaid at his estate, uncomfortably aware that his impulsive chivalry will lead to talk—something he abhors.

Determined to support her mother and sisters after her father's untimely death, Charlotte Mandeville covertly crafts satirical caricatures of high society. It not only puts money in her family’s bare pockets, but ensures the haut-ton cannot guard all the power and the secrets. Anthony Yorke has a guilty conscience and a brother to exonerate. When the key piece of evidence to clear his brother's name falls into the hands of a headstrong young woman, he is willing to do whatever is required to obtain it from her.

As the new Earl of Lismore, it is Sandy Duncan’s duty to save both his family and Lochlarren Castle from impending ruin. He has always known he must marry well, but his father’s deathbed revelation of a slew of other debts creates an unexpected urgency to the situation. With his last breath, Sandy’s father extracts a promise from him to accept the match he has arranged: a marriage to the daughter of a low-born but wealthy English merchant.

When Isabel Cosgrove is informed by her father that he lost her hand in marriage while playing cards with Charles Galbraith—the gentleman she’s been admiring from a distance for years—she is filled with dismay. Charles Galbraith didn’t intend to become engaged as a result of a drunken wager at cards, but after the woman he loves spurns him, what does it matter whom he marries? But even Miss Cosgrove, the fiancée he won by wager, seems intent not to marry him—a fact that both relieves and piques him.

Diana Donovan was raised aboard a naval ship on a steady diet of war strategy, so when her orphaned friend, Lucy, is denied a perfectly respectable love match by her controlling guardian, Diana sees an opportunity to put her battle knowledge to use in service of a deserving friend. But Marmaduke Russell is not the middle-aged curmudgeon Diana is expecting. He is a maddeningly cool unmarried gentleman who seems uniquely able to parry her tactics—and infuse her with even more determination to win.

Diane knows why the earl asked her to marry him; he needed a mother for his daughter, an heir for his title, and a hostess to assist with his position in Parliament. With two sons of her own, and no security to speak of, she never thought twice about accepting his proposal. Summering at his holiday cottage at the sea was meant to be reward for a busy first year as the new countess, and a time for her to rest before their baby is born.

Isla Findlay belongs nowhere. The daughter of a disgraced woman and the Highlander who abandoned them both, she tries to be a dutiful niece to the uncle who has taken her in, blending into the village as best she can. But when a young Highlander's arrival in the area coincides with an outbreak of dreaded smallpox, it stirs up questions about Isla's past and forces a confrontation between the beliefs she holds and the community she wants to belong to.

Phineas Donovan is possessed of a sharp intellect. Fresh from Cambridge, he obtains a generous live-in position as tutor for the son of the wealthy Lord Bettencourt. If he can prove his value, he has hopes of being given the patronage of his employer, allowing him to take up a position as vicar. There, he can pursue his intellectual endeavors in peace and relative financial comfort.

Tobias Cosgrove isn’t meant for marriage, free spirit that he is. And yet, as the only son, marry he must. He is thus relieved when his father reveals his future wife to be the calm, collected Lady Anne Vincent, for he is confident she won’t plague him with neediness or hysterics like so many of the other young women in society. But when Lady Anne's past reappears on their doorstep, she and Tobias are forced to confront whether a marriage of convenience is the type of marriage they wish for after all.

When Rebecca Russell’s brother marries, she finally has the opportunity she has been dreaming of: to leave the seclusion of her reclusive grandfather’s home and enter into society. But when her inexperience has her making blunders and courting embarrassment, help comes from an unexpected source: the brooding, irritable brother of her chaperone.

Miles Blakeburn is at his wit's end. Not only has he failed to produce an heir to the family's ancient title, his wife has withdrawn from him entirely. The one thing in the world she wants, he has thus far been unable to give her: a child. He is a failure in every regard. When they happen upon an abandoned baby at the Frost Fair, Miles simply can't resist the light he sees sparked in his wife's eyes as she holds the child. He agrees to take the foundling in until Christmastide is over, when they will find the babe a permanent home.

Elena MacKinnon has spent the last seven years training to become a proper English lady. When her childhood friend, Captain Theo Donovan, returns from serving in the Navy, he brings along with him Elena’s humiliation for the ill-advised and ardent love letter she wrote him before his departure, which he ignored entirely. Elena hopes to simultaneously stifle his memory of the letter and make him regret overlooking her, showing him just how fine an English lady she can be. The only problem? She is not English but a proud Scot—and her heart may be more enamored with Theo than ever.

After being dumped last Christmas, I’m taking extreme measures to ensure nothing and no one ruins my happy holidays this time around. I’ll be safely wrapped in a cocoon of kitschy Christmas decor, complete with surrounding winter wonderland at the ultimate holiday mountain cabin. So what if the countless elf figurines make me a little uneasy or if there are a couple hiccups with cabin maintenance? There’s a bigger problem: the assistant manager happens to be one of (many) teasing classmates from my childhood and my former crush.

After nearly ten years in the army, Hamish Campbell is ready to settle in and call a place home. His sights are set on Dalmore House, the Campbell family estate seized by the Crown after the '45 uprising. To have any chance at all of regaining it, he must not only find the money to pay off the estate’s debts but also persuade the man who has charge of it to relinquish the property into the hands of a Jacobite’s son.

Elizabeth Innes has a tongue too sharp for her own good, and she is never more ready to employ it than when faced with the MacKinnons. With just one piece of evidence connecting their clan to a near-deadly attack, she is determined to prove the laird guilty and see him brought to justice. So when chance throws her in the company of one of the MacKinnon men, she resolves to take advantage of the opportunity to glean more information.

Emma Caldwell doesn’t hate anyone—except for Hugh Warrilow, the man who jilted her older sister and left like a coward to join the army. Men are clearly not to be trusted, and Emma is determined not to give her heart to one. No, a marriage of convenience is the very thing to suit her.

Christina MacKinnon is secretly relieved to be a widow. She is equally desperate to distance herself from the clan of her dead husband, but as the heir to his estate—one she needs in order to support her siblings—she must first stave off both the advances and threats of the man next in line to inherit. It seems the only person she can turn to is a nearby stranger who seems inclined to help her. But he has a request….

Georgiana Paige is on the shelf after eight full Seasons in London and not a single offer of marriage. When the opportunity to act as companion to her spinster aunt presents itself, she jumps at the chance to escape the Marriage Mart and embark on a new adventure. Upon her eventful arrival in the tiny Yorkshire village, though, she finds herself confronted with a man who both piques her interest and provokes her pride.

Mercy Marcotte doesn't deserve a second chance at love. At least, that's what she's believed since jilting Solomon Kennett, the man she loved, when his fortunes took a turn for the worse. But Solomon is back from the West Indies, rich, aloof, and about to offer for Mercy's best friend. Mercy resolves to stay out of it—until her friend runs off with another man. She can't stand by while Solomon is humiliated yet again.

Glenna Douglas may be the daughter of a humble crofter, but she dreams of becoming the innkeeper of Glengour Inn, where she has worked for years. Her problems are two-fold: first, she cannot read or write; second, the landlord has chosen a gentleman who has never set foot in Glengour to manage the inn. She is determined to prove herself more capable than the newcomer—but she may need a bit of help from him to do it.