The Toll-Gate — Georgette Heyer

His great adventures were legendary... Captain John Staple's exploits in the Peninsula and Waterloo had earned him the sobriquet Crazy Jack amongst his fellows in the Dragoon Guards. Back from the battlefront, he is planning to settle down after a brave military career, and searches for the ideal bride to complement his earldom. But life in peacetime is rather dull for the adventure-loving Captain, who had enjoyed active service too much ever to settle for a life of humdrum respectability. When he finds himself mired on the moors--on a dark and stormy night, no less!--John hardly expects to find a young, frightened boy who's been left alone to tend a toll gatehouse. He has stumble upon a mystery involving the boy's disappearing father, the toll-gate keeper, nothing could keep he from investigating.

Undercover as the new keeper of the turnpike toll-house in the Pennines, John investigates the suspicious disappearance, he begins to unravel a far more complex mystery. But the post of gate-keeper appeared to offer certain unexpected and agreeable diversions. The plot thickens when he finds orphaned Nell Stornaway, granddaughter of Sir Peter Stornaway, squire of the village. The enigmatic lady, an outspoken beauty who is an unwitting pawn in a treacherous scheme. Soon he learns that rescuing her from her unsavory relatives makes even the most ferocious cavalry charge look like a particularly tame hand of loo. And he discovers that she is the only woman who can to tame John's reckless spirit. Could Nell loves John, before his true identity is discovered? Between hiding his true identity from Nell and the arrival in the neighborhood of some distinctly shady characters, Captain Staple finds himself embarked on the adventure-and romance-of a lifetime and espite he finds himself lost and benighted, his soldiering days suddenly pale away. And winning her will be his greatest yet...