Rumor Has It

Lady Eirene Rowe-Weston has inherited a great fortune and a great dilemma. Every bachelor in London wishes to marry her, but she has vowed never to become any man's bride. She has two choices, hide forever in the country or render herself unfit for marriage. She chooses the latter and hires one of London's most celebrated rakes to see to the task. Viscount Adrien Benoit is not all he appears or is rumored to be. When Lady Eirene offers him an exorbitant amount of money to ruin her, he counters and offers her a secret guaranteed to destroy him. The lady accepts, plans are made, but the moment of her ruination doesn't quite go as arranged. Nothing ever does when love interferes.

In an evening full of surprises, Henry Westhaven first has his marriage proposal rejected by a woman he was quite certain wished to marry him then his past returns in the form of a raven-haired siren of the sea who still holds his heart. He knows he should walk away, but he is drawn into her quest to discover which powerful peer of the realm is in possession of her lost smuggling ship. Morvoren “Ren” Teague wants only to find her ship and leave London—and Henry—for good. When he offers to help, every instinct warns her to reject his assistance as she had rejected his offer of marriage years ago. She’s the captain of ship, a smuggler with a price on her head, not the kind of woman a gentleman marries. Yet, how can she say no? After all, London Society is his world, not hers. In a search rife with complications, Henry and Ren soon find themselves confronted with a shocking scandal, a dangerous enemy, and a love too true to deny.