Ever since Miranda Pardew haughtily rejected his shy request for a dance, Barnaby Traherne has been a resigned bachelor. Ten years later, her circumstances have changed and the still-smitten Barnaby has an opportunity to hire the now-impoverished Miranda as governess to his brother's children. Barnaby must decide if he'll hold a long-stinging grudge, or allow the spirit of Christmas into his heart.

Time is running out for 25-year-old Lady Margaret Underwood. Desperate to retain the independence that her considerable fortune affords her, she accepts the proposal of Viscount Charles Isham. But after a few hours in his stultifying company, she does what any woman would do: She flees. A snowstorm and a carriage mishap lead to rescue by a seductive stranger.

After scandalizing London with her improper behavior and jilting two suitors, Nell Belden is about to do it again. This time she rejects the very wealthy, utterly insufferable nobleman her financially strapped guardians have been pressuring her to marry. Banished to their isolated Cornwall estate, Nell is awakened one night by an unusual apparition.

Sophia Edgerton knows how to make an entrance. Yet even she isn't prepared for the consequences when she throws herself into the arms of a total stranger at a society ball, mistaking him for her long-lost cousin. Marcus Harvey, fifth Earl of Wynwood, responds with a remark that sets the ton abuzz.

A dashing stranger sweeps Lady Gwendolyn Rowle onto the dance floor. She is living every woman's fantasy until she discovers who her romantic waltz partner really is: Viscount Andrew Jamison - the man who killed her husband.

'Tis the season when lovers' eyes shine by the light of a blazing Yule log, when a quick kiss is shared beneath the mistletoe, and when love is the most splendid gift of all. Savor the beauty and passion of Christmas with two heartwarming stories by outstanding Regency author Elizabeth Mansfield. From A Sneeze on Tuesday: A broken engagement and a miserable cold were not in Elinor's holiday plans. But her spirited heart found its own remedy: a true and lasting love.

Can a desperate young lady return a rakish earl to respectability? When Miss Margaret Caldecourt returns to her ancestral English country manor from Vienna to care for her late brother’s six-year-old son and heir, Timothy, she learns that unscrupulous relatives threaten his birthright. Immediately she seeks help from her childhood friend and Timothy’s newly named guardian, the handsome Adam Fortescue, sixth Earl of Abberley.

Robert Rothmore, Earl of Rockford, thinks Alissa Henning is simply delightful-exactly the kind of woman who'd make the perfect mother for his sons. But Alissa swore she'd spend the rest of her life scraping pennies together rather than wed the insufferable earl and become a glorified governess. Still, she couldn't very well let her own children starve - and there was no doubt that Rockford would give them all a good life. So, she reluctantly accepts his offer...but there's more to a good life than what's in one's pockets.

Once the toast of society, Grace Cabot and her sisters now await the shame of losing high status and fine luxuries upon the death of the Earl of Beckington. The dire circumstances are inevitable unless, of course, Grace's wicked plot to seduce a wealthy viscount into marriage goes off without a single hitch. But once a stolen embrace with the wrong man leads her to be discovered in the arms of Jeffrey, the Earl of Merryton, her plan takes a most unexpected - and scorching - twist - and altered by passion.

Alaric McLeod, Duke of Strathaven, is known as the Devil Duke for his wicked ways. Tormented by his past, Alaric knows better than to trust a woman, yet finds himself ensnared by a spirited, virtuous virgin - who accuses him of a crime he didn't commit. Is she his worst nightmare...or his salvation?

Valerian Blackwood is summoned to his aged uncle’s country estate to help the old man settle a problem with his heir. What Valerian finds is a mystery - and the love of his life. He only has to decide which is more important to him: solving the mystery or winning his lady. 

Newton Hughes has long dreamed of pursuing a career in law, an acceptable choice for a gentleman of status and wealth. His parents, however, disapprove of his ambition, urging him instead to take his rightful place as a gentleman of leisure - with a suitable wife of their choosing, of course. Ellie Napper would like nothing more than for her parents to abandon their incessant efforts to marry her off to the greatest possible advantage. Her lack of matrimonial enthusiasm drives her family mad.

Wealthy squire's daughter Margaret Honeywell was always meant to marry her neighbor, Frederick Burton-Smythe, but it's bastard-born Nicholas Seaton who has her heart. Raised alongside her on her father's estate, Nick is the rumored son of notorious highwayman Gentleman Jim. When Fred frames him for theft, Nick escapes into the night, vowing to find his legendary sire. But Nick never returns. A decade later, he's long been presumed dead. 

She wanted sanctuary... Helena Reynolds will do anything to escape her life in London, even if that means traveling to a remote cliffside estate on the North Devon coast and marrying a complete stranger. But Greyfriar's Abbey isn't the sort of refuge she imagined. And ex-army captain Justin Thornhill - though he may be tall, dark, and devastatingly handsome - is anything but a romantic hero. He needed redemption... Justin has spent the last two decades making his fortune, settling scores, and suffering a prolonged period of torture in an Indian prison.

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shy, pretty, and talented with a drawing pencil but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: She invented a sweetheart.