The Youngest Miss Ashe — Paula Marshall

“I'll be your mistress, not your wife”.
Sir Simon Darrow had known and like Meg Ashe since she was a child and secure in his acceptability, his blunt proposal totally lacked romance, he was stunned when Meg refused him, and went instead to her aunt in Paris.
Eight years later as the widowed and very wealthy Countess de Montaine, Meg returned, trailing an apparently slightly soiled reputation, to find Simon still unmarried and not prepared to accept Meg's decision never to marry again … despite his misgivings!