The Heiress of Blackthorn Grange: A Fake Engagement Regency Romance (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798278549666)

A quiet solicitor's daughter. A crumbling coastal estate. A ward who needs her.

Lydia Harcourt never expected a titled world to notice her, until an astonishing will names her mistress of Blackthorn Grange, a grand house perched above a restless sea, and guardian to a wary child, Sophie. But the inheritance comes with conditions, and a local magistrate will decide whether Lydia is "capable" of holding the estate at all.

Waiting at the will reading is Simon Trevelyan, war-scarred, controlled, and certain Lydia will fail. He has been living at the Grange, acting as master in all but name, and he is determined to protect Sophie, with or without Lydia's cooperation.

Then the accidents begin: a near fall, shadows where no one should be, signs of sabotage that suggest someone wants Lydia gone and Sophie unprotected. Under mounting scrutiny, Lydia and Simon strike an arrangement meant to quiet gossip and keep the estate secure, a pretend engagement with rules that feel sensible until they start to feel impossible.

In the end, Lydia must prove she can run a great house, shield a child, and trust a man who has learned to survive by never needing anyone at all.

A standalone Regency romance in the Legacies of Fortune and Love series.