Secrets to Keep — Sheila Holland

Victorian romantic saga, follows the story of Sophia, wealthy heiress, and the two men embroiled in a deadly rivalry for her affections. Stonor is a man of business, cold and practical, but determined to cement their relationship in a marriage that will guarantee the survival of his inheritance, Queen's Stonor, one of the great houses of England, elegant but decaying. Wolfe is his illegitimate brother, charming but always involved in some disreputable scheme, furious that he will not inherit Queen's Stonor himself. The two young men have always loathed each other and Sophia's entrance into their world provides them with an excuse for their silent enmity to break into open hostility. Sophia herself falls head over heels in love with Wolfe, but she knows the relationship is doomed; her father wishes her to marry Stonor and she will not hurt him by refusing.