A wounded rake of a soldier is thrown off-balance by a young wallflower who is full of surprises.
He has returned home from Waterloo a hero with invisible scars.
She is the shy wallflower who soothes his soul.
Can an insouciant rake face his demons and do the difficult thing, or will he lose the extraordinary woman who has stolen his heart?
The Soldier
Captain Thomas Walpole, the ton’s most fun-loving rascal and inveterate rake, has returned from the Battle of Waterloo a changed man. Not every injury he has sustained is one of the body, and he is hanging on to his old good-humoured self by a very thin line. Having taken a musket ball to the leg, he is forced to recover out in the country at Lord Winter’s Avery House. What he does not anticipate upon his homecoming is the presence of a young wallflower who just so happens to be staying with the Winter family over the summer. Her company is a balm for his ravaged soul, and he has to remind himself on more than one occasion that an innocent like her is very much off-limits for a rakish gentleman such as himself.
The Songbird
Miss Abigail Fernside has a talent for music, and it is only through her music that she finds she can express her true self—without it, she feels self-conscious and out of place. While she has been slowly gaining confidence over the summer, Captain Walpole’s arrival at Avery House has her reflexively attempting to make herself smaller and less noticeable. The good captain, however, appears lonely and desolate, and it’s so easy to talk to him—just the two of them, alone in the dark. Abigail finds herself relaxing in his presence, but when the captain treats her unfairly, she decides that enough is enough.
Together
Temptation leads to hurt feelings and lines drawn in the sand. Eventually, Thomas Walpole must determine what it is he feels for Miss Fernside. Why does her absence cling to him like the sticky mud of the battlefield? Why does her choice of dress throw him into a tantrum? Why does he continue to make her cry? And what can he do when he finds she will be betrothed to another?
This is a steamy age-gap Regency romance with LGBTQ+ elements and a well-earned happily-ever-after.
