The Duke's Inheritance

When the new Duke of Hartley, Hugh Bartholomew Mowbray, returns to London after a long absence, he is given the news that he must produce an heir by the age of thirty or risk losing everything but his title to his half-brother. A strong and handsome man of twenty-eight, there should be no problem with Hugh securing a wife and heir. Except, he already has the former. And the estranged lovers have not spoken in three years. He decides he must do whatever is in his power to win her back and save his inheritance.

The Duchess of Hartley, nee Lady Beatrix Tidwell, has thrived in her husband’s absence, turning Riverden, a wedding present from her parents, into a prosperous estate and a haven for intellectual women known as the Tidwell Society.  When her long-absent husband surprises her there, she immediately attempts to expel him. The Tidwell Society members convince her to determine his motives, and so she agrees he may stay. But of one thing she is certain: she will never make the mistake of falling for him again.