Pretty Little Lyon — Katherine Bone

Enter the world of the most notorious gambling den in London, where matches are made... unusually. Welcome to the world of THE LYON'S DEN: The Black Widow of Whitehall Connected World, where the underground of Regency London thrives... and loves.

If you do not marry by Season's end, I shall expose the seedy side of your father's past, thereby damaging his reputation -- and yours by proxy -- condemning you both to a life of destitution and despair.

Who is sending Charlotta Walcot threatening notes? Why would anyone cast aspersions against her father, a mild-mannered professor of antiquities at Cambridge University? As for herself, although she has no plans to wed, why would that be of issue to anyone to save herself? Desperate to swerve the scandal that would destroy both her and her father's reputations, Charlotta dares to venture into the Lyon's Den, a gambling hall and house of ill repute in London's fashionable Whitehall. There, she begs its owner, the mysterious Black Widow, Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyon, to use her connections to identify her blackmailer.

But that is not the end of Charlotta's troubles.

Obliged to attend her cousins' coming-out ball, she collides with Lord Septimus Grey. After witnessing the delivery of another unpleasant note to her, Septimus offers his help. But how can Charlotta place her trust in him since he is the man who, years ago, stole her young and impressionable heart?