A Christmas Bride — Mary Balogh

The Wrong Lady

At six-and-thirty, the very wealthy Edgar Downes had finally decided to take a bride. Although not to the manner born, Edgar had promised his aging father that he would wed a titled lady by Christmas. Edgar came to London to review a parade of eligible misses, all of them pretty, proper, and young enough to bear him a son. But it was the widow Lady Helena Stapleton, in a shocking red dress, who captured his undivided attention. He simply could not take his eyes from her. And as for Helena, she too felt a most disturbing frisson when she saw this seductive stranger.

An irresistible passion was soon sweeping them into a scandalous liaison. Marriage, of course, would never do. Helena was too old and altogether the wrong lady to marry; Helena thought Edgar simply not in her class. But in a season of unexpected miracles, something wondrous was about to happen... something that would change their minds and transform their hearts forever....