Aydra Richards

Wrongfully accused of the murder of her husband, Geneviève Amberley, the Duchess of Venbrough, buried her past before it could bury her. In the twelve years since, she has reinvented herself from runaway duchess into Jenny Laurent, the manager of an exclusive ladies’ club. No one is looking for a criminal in the woman she has become, and the murderous duchess is so far in the past that she might as well truly be dead and buried—or so she believes. To Sebastian Knight, there is nothing quite so interesting as a mystery to be solved, and the woman who calls herself Jenny Laurent is the most fascinating mystery he has ever encountered. She is his latest obsession—an enigma so tantalizing, so alluring, that he cannot help but to make himself known to her. An affair with the perceptive Mr. Knight is the last thing Jenny needs, but she finds herself charmed by his candor and his persistence—even if his unique talents make him the most dangerous man in all of England to a woman like her. He could very well burn her carefully constructed façade to ashes…and destroy her in the process.

Lady Diana Beaumont has a fiancé—in theory. In practice, she’s languished at the edges of ballrooms for years, waiting for her absent betrothed to fulfill his obligations to her. But the Earl of Weatherford has eschewed polite society for a decade, and Diana is weary of waiting. If he will not come to her, then she will go to him, and put an end to their sham of an engagement at last.Ben Gillingham is an earl—in theory. In practice, it’s been nearly a decade since he has called himself anything other than plain Mr. Gillingham. Cut off by his father years ago, he is now only a simple laborer with a young daughter to provide for. A daughter whose origins make it impossible to bring her out in society, whose education is sadly lacking, and whose hellish behavior will see them ruined if he cannot find someone to watch over her while he works to secure a better life.When Diana arrives at his door to demand his assistance in breaking their engagement, Ben sees opportunity. He agrees to give her what she demands, if she will mind and educate his daughter. But as threads of attachment begin to bind them, an end to their engagement no longer seems quite so desirable. Can their unexpected love weather the obstacles still in their path?

James Bradford, Duke of Rushton, is a man obsessed with revenge. When his sister’s lover, the Earl of Westwood, refuses to wed her to save her from disgrace and give her child a name, he latches onto a nefarious scheme of his own: an eye for an eye. Or, more appropriately, a sister’s dishonor for a sister’s dishonor. Lady Jillian Kittridge has been crossed in love before, with absolutely no inclination to set herself up for disaster yet again. At twenty-two, she is very nearly on the shelf and is simply awaiting the day that the funds set aside for her dowry will fall under her control. But when the handsome Duke of Rushton begins to court her, she finds herself unwillingly tempted. The fact that James finds himself actually liking Jillian is an unwelcome complication. As his scheme draws ever closer to fruition, he wonders: Can he truly destroy the life of an innocent woman, a woman he admires and respects? Or has he been caught in his own trap?

She will break his heart even at the cost of her own.Lydia Alcott left London beneath a cloud of shame and ignominy five years ago, when her affair with Marcus Beaumont, Baron Newhaven, came to a disastrous end. Now she has built a successful career as an actress, but her return to London places her once more within Marcus’ notice—and the reach of his wrath.Marcus ordered Lydia away from London when the revelation of her infidelity left him devastated and heartbroken, warning her that to return would be to invite her own destruction. Now, seeing her upon the stage, the desire for revenge consumes him—he will hold her heart in the palm of his hand and crush it as she once did his own.But Lydia has resentments of her own to satisfy. Unjustly accused of infidelity, she now intends to bring Marcus to his knees in truth. Thus begins a dangerous game of retribution and seduction neither intends to lose. But when old passions surface once more, each must make the choice whether to surrender their antipathy. She will never again be his mistress, and he will not make her his wife…unless the truth, long buried, can set them free from the past.

Determined to find the man who ruined her sister and force him into matrimony at the point of a pistol, Lizzie Talbot hatches a plan to abduct the blackguard responsible. A plan which might have gone perfectly—had she not abducted the wrong man, and then shot him besides. With three siblings to support in a derelict manor house crumbling around them, and a wounded marquess to nurse back to health, will there be no end to her troubles? Forced to rusticate in the countryside, Lucas Godwin, Marquess of Ashworth, can think only of enacting his vengeance upon the murderous harpy responsible for it. At least until Lizzie Talbot and her brood of unruly siblings begin to grow upon him, bringing a man long dead slowly back to life. When Luke offers her a bargain—become his marchioness in exchange for his protection and support—Lizzie knows she must accept to secure her family’s future. But the man he is in London is so far removed from the man she thought she had known. Can there be any hope of warming her husband’s cold heart?

Miss Phoebe Toogood has never wanted children of her own and, at nine and twenty, has spent a decade avoiding matrimony in her efforts to remain happily childless. But now that her potential suitors have turned toward widowers seeking mothers for their children, Phoebe is growing increasingly desperate.The bastard son of an earl, Christopher Moore has been both criminal and spy in his time. Now that his connection to his half-sister, Lady Emma, is public knowledge, he knows he must polish his dreadful reputation lest it taint hers, too. For that he needs a damned wife. Not just any wife, but a proper lady from a respectable family to ease him into a society that will not accept him otherwise.When Phoebe’s family moves into the house next door to Chris’, they forge a secret friendship between them. Neither wants to be married, but they need each other nonetheless—so they strike the perfect deal. A marriage of convenience, to the benefit of both. At least until their convenient marriage becomes somewhat less than convenient…

Lord Rafe Beaumont has loved Lady Emmeline Prescott for nearly half his life. She is the widow of his former friend, his younger sister’s closest companion…and she doesn’t even know he exists. For years he has contented himself with his position at the very periphery of her life, knowing it is the closest he can ever allow himself to be.Emma has made a life for herself taking in and raising London’s less fortunate children. They fill the void left by the children she was never able to have—but she is still lonely. Though she has no desire to remarry, she resolves to take a lover to fill her empty nights. Someone she doesn’t know; someone who poses no risk to her fortune or her reputation.She has no reason to suspect that a single unwise comment made to the wrong person has thrust her back into a danger she has never known existed, and Rafe is determined to rescue her from it once more. But he must do it without revealing himself for the spy he truly is, while warming the bed of the only woman he has ever loved...the woman he widowed ten years ago.

Violet Townsend died eight years ago, the day that her father’s will stipulated that she marry a stranger. The last time she laid eyes upon her husband was the eve of their wedding, when he had her shipped off to be educated at an elite finishing school—which turned out to be a nightmare come to life. After engineering a daring escape, Violet reinvented herself to avoid detection, living beneath assumed names, working in menial positions, always on the run…and always aware that her husband had never stopped searching for her. John Darling had not wanted a wife thrust upon him—particularly not a seventeen-year-old girl who had best been described as ‘headstrong’ and ‘willful.’ But when Violet fled her finishing school and he had discovered the truth of what had occurred there, he had been forced to confront the ruin he had made of her life. In the years since, he has tracked her across England, collecting the pieces of the lives she has left in her wake, and finding that the image of the woman revealed through them isn’t at all what he imagined her to be. Now resurrected, Violet has a life that belongs to her once again, a home, and a career as a teacher at her dearest friend’s newly-founded school of deportment. But when her long-estranged husband arrives upon her doorstep as one of her students, it threatens to usurp everything Violet has struggled to build. Only, her husband isn’t quite the cold, unfeeling man from her memories. He claims only to want to get to know her, to make amends…but how could she possibly trust him?

Grey St. Clair, recently created the Marquess of Granbury, has long nurtured a grudge against the aristocracy. Of common origins, he has spent years clawing his way into their exalted ranks, collecting their sins, secrets, and debts to use for his own purposes—all in the service of bringing about the downfall of the earl who destroyed his family nearly two decades ago. At long last, he is perfectly positioned to take from the Earl of Andover everything of value…beginning with the earl’s daughter. Lady Serena Tyndall has never been less than the perfect lady, of sterling character and reputation...until the day the marquess that polite society calls a demon arrives at her home and demands her for his mistress, leveraging her father’s debts to secure her acquiescence. Worse still, her father—hardly the model of fatherly devotion—agrees to sacrifice her to save himself. But the marquess has no interest in making her his mistress in truth, so together they strike a bargain: Grey will use Serena’s perceived disgrace as a weapon against her father, and in return for her compliance, he will leave her a wealthy woman when their association ends. While Serena contends with her changed place in society, she learns to appreciate her newfound freedom from the strictures of societal conventions. With no reputation to protect, she is free to pursue her own interests, free to skirt the bounds of acceptable behavior…perhaps free to fall in love with an unsuitable marquess, who—despite the circumstances of their meeting—has given her everything she never knew she wanted.

Charlotte Mabry loved Simon Browning, the elder brother of her dearest friend, right up until the moment he broke her heart and humiliated her in front of half of London. In the years since, she has rehabilitated her public image and climbed to heights she would never have dreamed she could reach, but experience has taught her better than to love or trust in any man ever again. Instead, she has turned her attention to business. It is a secret that could ruin her if it ever fell into the wrong hands—after all, who would ever expect the darling of the Ton to be the owner of an illicit ladies’ club? Simon Browning, Baron Clybourne, has recently returned to England, ten years removed from the worst night of his life which sent him fleeing from his home in shame. He is haunted by what might have been had he only owned up to his feelings for Lottie—and now he must contend with the fact that the sweet, shy girl he had once known has been replaced a veritable jewel of the Ton. But even her perfect, glittering façade cannot hide her lifeless eyes and smothered spirit. Simon is ready, at last, to be the man he ought to have been ten years ago, and he is certain that there must be something of the girl he still loves buried beneath the armor of the consummate lady that she has donned in his absence. But if he cannot uncover the dangerous secrets she holds and protect her from the consequences thereof, she may be ruined. Worse still, if he cannot win her forgiveness and convince her that he loves the Lottie who hides behind the mask she wears, he may lose her forever.

Nicholas Winter, Marquess of Sinridge, might be considered the catch of the Season...if he had any intention of being caught. Accustomed to deference and respect, he finds himself oddly charmed by an impertinent housemaid he encounters while attending a ball. Captivated, he resolves to steal her away from her unkind employer. His rash decision mystifies even himself: he doesn't even know her name. Ella has been a housemaid all her life, and is no stranger to the improper advances of noblemen, but the marquess defies all such expectations. And yet when circumstances compel her at last to accept his generous offer of employment, she is bewildered to discover that her new position isn't what she thought it would be. She won't be his mistress, and he doesn't want her as a maid. Instead, Nick hires her on as his companion. As improper as it is, it's the only way to keep her close. But now that he has her, how far will he go to keep her?

When Alex Dryden, Duke of Davenport, receives a letter from a disgruntled tenant alleging mismanagement by the land agent who oversees one of his estates, he knows something must be done. Given the antipathy in which his tenants hold him, he decides to investigate in disguise, masquerading as a simple solicitor newly arrived from London to sort out the situation on the duke’s behalf. Theo Vance has lived and worked the farm that her father leases from the duke all of her life, but with their funds depleting further each passing quarter day, desperate measures must be taken lest they find themselves evicted. When Mr. Dryden arrives at her farm, summoned by the belligerent letter she’d penned to the duke, and claiming that he has come to resolve the issue, she is doubtful that anything will come of it—but her father nevertheless agrees to let Mr. Dryden stay on to conduct his investigation, so long as he also provides much-needed labor on their farm. It takes little more than a day for Theo to see through Mr. Dryden’s disguise, and when she realizes that she has got a duke playing at being a farm laborer, she can’t resist the impulse to make him miserable as retribution for the suffering the town has endured beneath his neglect. But she finds it harder and harder to keep hold of her resentment, when he’s not at all the kind of man she expected him to be…

Seven years ago, Claire Hotchkiss thought she’d found her very own happily-ever-after with Gabriel Newsom, the Marquess of Leighton—but when she discovered that her marriage license hadn’t been worth the paper it had been written on, her fairytale swiftly turned into a nightmare. Since then she has found a place for herself in the world working as a housekeeper, but when circumstances compel her to seek out a new post, she finds herself unwittingly accepting a position within the household of the man who destroyed her life. And, to her shock, he doesn’t seem to remember her at all. Gabriel Newsom has spent the last seven years pretending there’s nothing wrong with him. Plagued by migraines—a remnant of the accident that stole years of his life from him—he spends the majority of his time avoiding society, lest his condition be discovered. He cannot bear the seething jealousy he holds for people who are whole and unburdened by the loss of self he has suffered. When his father confesses that within those missing years he might have been married, he is shaken anew. Somewhere out in the world is a woman whom he unwillingly abandoned, a woman he had once loved. And he doesn’t even know her name. His new housekeeper is perhaps the only person in his life who is unflinching in the face of his temper, unwilling to leave him to wallow in his misery. Like a guardian angel she watches over him, expects better of him, and against all odds he finds himself comforted by her presence and seeking her approval. He entrusts to her his secrets, never knowing that Claire has secrets of her own…

Firmly on the shelf, Poppy Fairchild has spent the past few years eking out a living as a Gothic novelist—under a pseudonym—to support herself and her younger sisters. Lacking for inspiration for some particularly salacious scenes, she seizes upon the idea to spy upon a gentleman engaged in an illicit liaison at a ball for research purposes. Unbeknownst to her, she’s chosen exactly the wrong gentleman from which to draw inspiration. David Kittridge, the Earl of Westwood, is deep in the throes of heartbreak, as the woman he loves has recently become engaged to someone else. Engaging in meaningless trysts seems as good a way as any to cure himself of lovesickness, but after mistaking Poppy for a woman in search of a touch of scandal, and a kiss that leaves him reeling, he finds that he can’t quite get her out of his head. David is incensed when he discovers that he has been used as material for a Gothic novel, and is determined to ferret out the culprit. But when he comes into possession of Poppy’s writing notebook and learns of her secret career as a Gothic novelist, he realizes the notebook comes with an unexpected boon—the leverage he needs to lure in the reluctant Poppy. If anyone should discover her secret, it would destroy her reputation and ruin her sisters’ chances of making decent matches. But David’s blackmail leads them down a path that neither would ever have expected.