Love's Denial — Tamela Hancock Murray

Raleigh Alden returns to his Baltimore home to discover merchants have taken advantage of his mother's accounts. He determines that no one will again exploit their fortune, including his mother's seamstress, Daphne Kerr. But when Daphne takes on her niece Eleanor as a new employee, Raleigh is stunned by both Eleanor's beauty and her staunch defense of Daphne.

Raleigh resists his heart, believing that courting a lowly seamstress would demean his family's name and his position in society. Eleanor has little patience with Raleigh once she discovers his snobbish assessment of her. She desires love, but not if it costs Eleanor her values.