Captivating the Countess — Patricia Rice

Can a ghost help a marquess to save his father and captivate a countess?

A spinster countess with a penniless estate, Lady Isobel Malcolm Ross faints when startled, allowing spirits to enter her head. Undeterred by her impairment, Bell learns of a position in a quiet ducal household where she might earn her way.

Jasper Winchester, Marquess of Rainford, comes from a long line of healers, but he's unable to cure his own father. The duke's dying request is that Rainford marry to protect the family fortune. The marquess has dutifully acquired a suitable candidate, but Bell's arrival unleashes the ghost of Rain's grandmother, who frightens his fiancée into fleeing.

Much as Rain would like to toss the haunted countess into the snow, only Bell can calm the furious ghost, hush his heir's opera singers, and manage his unruly sisters. Soon, his family insists that Rain marry Bell before all their fortunes are lost. Except Bell wants no part of this tumultuous household, where slamming doors startle her into falling down staircases. But how can she abandon the eccentric family -- and distraught marquess -- who accepts her foibles?

The ghost's demands for Bell to help Rain save the duke result in mayhem and catastrophe. Now the two must find a way to heal each other -- before the duke is gone, the family's future is lost, and any hope of love vanishes.