But when a pompous secretary gives him too many orders, Jack hops on the next stagecoach leaving London inn, not caring where it’s going. Major Jack Howard, a weary veteran of the Peninsular Wars, has just returned to England and intends to return to an unwelcoming family home for Christmas. Can love lead to redemption and trust? Or is it too late? Read online Good resolutions crumble when two passionate, complicated people are drawn together despite their best judgment. Then the new owner appears in all his dangerous masculinity and threatens everything Alys holds dear. She uses her skills to help her people, and her initials to convince the elderly earl who owned the state that she’s male. Over the years, she’s built a good life with a foster family and a position as steward of Strickland. Young Alys Weston fled her home in despair, vowing never to trust another man. Reggie returns to Strickland, resolving to build a healthier, more honorable life-if he can. Then the rightful heir claims the title and property and offers Reggie one last chance: Strickland, the estate where he was born and the site of his greatest joys and sorrows.

Known as “the despair of the Davenports,” Reginald Davenport lived a reckless, rakish life while waiting for his hated uncle to die and leave Reggie an earldom.

Loving a Lost Lord by Mary Jo Putney