Duke's Secret Rose

A Forbidden Love Across the Ballroom.Lady Evelyn Whittaker is intelligent, observant, and painfully aware that she is not the sort of young lady who dazzles in a ballroom. She has beauty, but not the polished confidence of the fashionable set. Her family is respectable but financially strained, and her mother is desperate for Evelyn to make a suitable match before their situation becomes common knowledge.At the opening ball of the Season, Evelyn notices the formidable and aloof Alexander Ashbourne, Duke of Harrington, a man surrounded by rumor. Some say he ruined a lady's reputation years ago. Others claim he broke an engagement without explanation. Some whisper that the late duchess, his mother, died in disgrace, leaving the Duke distrustful of society and determined never to marry for love.Evelyn is certain a man so cold and magnificent would never notice her.Then she receives a rose.A single pale rose is delivered anonymously with a line from a romantic poem. Evelyn believes it must be from the Duke after an intense glance across the ballroom. But the rose was not sent by him. It was sent by Thomas Greaves, the Duke's charming but lower-ranking childhood friend, who has admired Evelyn from afar.The mistake sets off a dangerous chain of misunderstandings. Evelyn begins to look for meaning in the Duke's every word. The Duke, at first amused and irritated by her attention, slowly becomes captivated by her sincerity. Thomas grows jealous as his own secret courtship accidentally brings Evelyn and the Duke together.And when Evelyn uncovers the truth behind the Duke's old scandal, she must decide whether to protect him at the cost of her own reputation.