The Duke She Despised — Alina K. Field

The new Duke of Kinmarty has lost everyone who mattered and gained naught but a title, and debt, and an old pile of a castle. When a fetching new housekeeper appears on his doorstep, frantic to ready the place for the Yuletide, he seizes the chance for a respite from grieving and pretends to be the new duke's estate factor.

With her cousin's children due to arrive from India, a vicar's widow hides her identity and takes a position as housekeeper to their dreadful uncle, the man who, years ago, sabotaged her own chance for happiness. Overwhelmed by a castle understaffed and in disarray, she forges a bond with the new duke's charming but not very competent factor, not knowing that he's hiding something as well.

When allies become lovers, each senses the truth may rip them apart. Can their love survive, when she discovers he's the duke she despised?

Previously published in the Winter Wishes Regency Holiday Romance Anthology