When a Duchess Says I Do (Rogues to Riches)
Widowed, starving and desperate, Duchess Matilda Wakefield is on the run from an obsessed fiancé when she stumbles upon a pair of poachers who not only have their eyes on the rabbit she just trapped, but also on the landowner, whom they are threatening with grievous bodily harm. Fortunately, she possesses a pistol and a firm grasp of how to use it.
Impoverished scholar Duncan Wentworth owes his life to the stranger who had not only rescued him, but had been hiding in his gatehouse for several days. Out of gratitude—and more than a little curiosity—he invites her to his home for a meal. Not that home is anything to look at, since Brightwell had been neglected for years. Leave it to his cousin Quinn to challenge him to make the place livable on an impossibly small budget. The one meal leads Duncan to offer Matilda employment as his secretary, since he has horrendous penmanship and she can decipher his copious notes and can organize his thoughts in a sensible order.
And so begins a complicated story of blackmail, false identities, fine art, international espionage, and treason, all told with Grace Burrowes’ signature humor. I enjoyed the characters’ interplay and their multi-layered love story, which never falls into the predictable. Recommended. A delightful Regency read.
