The Guardian — Barbara J. Miller

For seven years Miss Amy Conde has run a successful horse breeding enterprise on her country estate, Talltrees. She longs to bring new blood into her line with a younger stallion, but that requires capital--money her absent guardian is willfully withholding. Until Amy turns twenty-five in three months' time, Mr. Trent Severn controls her fate, and she bitterly resents his interference.

Trent's role in aiding his country's war against Napoleon has consumed the last decade of his life. When he thinks of his ward, he remembers a little girl he met once, at her father's funeral. Then he comes to Talltrees and finds that Amy is now a capable, strong-willed businesswoman--and a vital, passionate soul who regards him with deep disgust. Stunned beyond measure, he determines to find her a husband who will take her off his hands. But when an eligible suitor does arrive, Trent and Amy discover the heated emotion that sparked between them from the first is rapidly turning to desire.