How to Handle a Scandle

Lady Flora Norwood has made an art of never becoming a story. At six-and-twenty she would far rather be called difficult than ruined, and she arrives at Haleford’s house party fully resolved to enjoy the company, ignore the matchmaking, and keep a careful distance from Lord Arthur Cavendish, a charming, verse-scribbling gentleman with the dangerous habit of meaning every word he says.

Then a dropped reticule, a treacherous fountain, and one badly torn seam strand her in a moonlit conservatory at precisely the wrong hour. Naturally, Arthur is the one who finds her.

He is discreet. He is kind. He is, unfortunately, also furious on her behalf, and a gentleman’s indignation has a way of sounding exactly like devotion. By breakfast the whole house is whispering, and Flora’s hard-won composure is the least of what is in danger.

Arthur would defend her against every gossip at Haleford. What Flora needs is for him to learn that the surest way to protect a woman is to let her remain the author of her own dignity.

A sweet, witty, closed-door Regency about scandal handled properly — by honoring the person at its heart.