Deserted — Mary Lancaster

Abandoned by all, save a cold-hearted rake…

Sophia, once betrothed to Major Giles Butler, who shot the Duke of Cuttyngham in a duel, has become the companion of the widowed duchess. In theory, at least. But when the duchess also abandons Sophia at Cuttyngs, her past catches up with her in the shape of her bullying cousins. Sophia finds herself indebted to the late duke's second, the haughty Earl of Frostbrook, whom she remembers only too well from a previous shocking, and secretly pleasurable, encounter.

Frostbrook, pursued by every matchmaking mama and hounded by his own mother to accept a bride of her choosing, decides to play a trick on them all by producing his own pretend engagement to the beautiful but prickly Sophia. Their charade at his mother's country house party sets off a string of unforeseen events such as falling in love, and a dangerous abduction.

Frostbrook pursues Sophia across the sea and as far as Brussels, where Wellington's troops are amassing to face Bonaparte's army.

Here, among the scandal-loving British visitors, he and Sophia must unite to overcome their pasts and find a chance of happiness.