A tender regency romance of second chances, unlikely heroes, and love strong enough to cross culture
Caroline, Dowager Marchioness of Lewiston, has long since made peace with the life she was given: a grand title, a comfortable house, and a heart carefully trained not to want what it cannot have.
Then Thomas Ashcombe returns.
Years ago, Thomas was the man she loved—and lost. Now he is a wealthy merchant newly arrived from India, bringing with him not only a fortune, but a daughter, Anjali, whose place in English society is as uncertain as her father’s safety. Thomas has come home with dangerous evidence of corruption connected to the East India Company, and powerful men will do anything to silence him.
When Thomas is falsely imprisoned under suspicion of treason, Caroline must decide whether she is willing to risk her reputation, her family, and her carefully ordered world for the man she never forgot.
Sir Julian Meredith has always preferred legal arguments to drawing-room conversation. Awkward, red-haired, and far too honest for his own comfort, he is no one’s idea of a romantic hero—least of all his own. But when Anjali Ashcombe’s courage draws him into a web of secrets, forged loyalties, and political danger, Julian discovers that love may require a bravery no courtroom ever demanded of him.
As Caroline and Thomas fight for a second chance, and Julian and Anjali reach for a future neither of them expected, one question remains: can love survive when truth itself has become a crime?
