The Reluctant Gentlemen

The Earl of Bourne wanted no part of married life. After years of danger in foreign wars, he was eager to plunge into a campaign of Conquests among the long lists of London lovelies who would give their all to please a man such as he. Miss Jane Maitland wanted to be wed even less. As proud as she was beautiful, she would never let any man enslave her. But wedding bells were tolling just the same.

Miss Lucy Gladwin knew all the faults of the eminent, elegant Julian Rutherford, Earl of Thorpe. Julian was not only unbearably arrogant, he was insufferably self-centered and infuriatingly egotistical. But Lucy knew very well that he was the handsomest man she had ever seen — and the only man she could possibly love. The earl didn’t know it, but he was about to become the target of Cupid's bow.

Fashionable society buzzed with rumor when Miss Mary Lawrence made her appearance in its circles. Where had this beauty come from, and what was her background and breeding? One gentleman decided to solve this mystery and if anyone could, he was the one. But as Lord Rule was to learn, love could be far more difficult than war when your opponent was a young lady as bewildering as she was bewitching.

With his marriage clock ticking, Lord Edward Laurence’s wife quest had brought him to a most unsuspecting lady. The ever-capable Miss Emily Howland was certain the dashing lord had set his sights on her uncommonly beautiful cousin. Determined to protect her charge from his advances, Emily placed herself in the path of his conquest. Little did she know, Edward’s object of passion had always Emily.