Captain Samuel Lumley is proud to follow in his cousin’s footsteps and serve king and country in the cavalry. Wounded in the Battle of Waterloo, he is cared for by an angel in the form of his lieutenant’s wife. A promise to his dying comrade leaves Sam with the responsibility of seeing to the safety of the lieutenant’s widow, Mrs. Ellen Staverton. Upon their return to England, Ellen finds herself homeless and in need of employment. When Sam’s mother offers her a temporary home with the family, Ellen quickly grows too fond of them and Sam in particular. She must find a position before she falls for him, which would dishonor the memory of her dead husband. Night terrors of the slaughters he survived have left Sam an empty husk of a man. He has little to offer a woman beyond his name and income so he won’t think of marriage, but the only joy in his life is the laughter of his angel, Ellen. Can he heal his inner wounds before she is gone from his life completely?

Stubborn. Hard-headed. Single-minded. The qualities that make David Lumley a successful horse breeder are put to work befriending Lady Joanna Hurst with less than noble intentions. He’s tenacious in his pursuit of the answers he seeks. Lady Joanna falls fast and hard for the handsome, witty and charming Mr. Lumley after her brother’s ultimatum to find a husband by the end of the Season. He is everything she imagined a husband could be, and more. Blissfully unaware of the conflict between their fathers, she believes he’ll declare his love soon. Then she overhears a conversation between Mr. Lumley and her brother, and all of Mr. Lumley’s tenacity will be needed if he’s to win back her heart.

Adam Lumley, Viscount Knightwick, desperately wants to breed one of his mares to a stallion owned by the Earl of Huntfield. Huntfield sees no reason to improve the stock of his competition and repeatedly turns down whatever sum Knightwick offers. After giving up hope his wallflower daughter will ever find a husband, Lord Huntfield settles on a deal: if Knightwick can turn Lady Susan into a diamond of the Season, Knightwick can breed his mare as he wishes. Lady Susan Yarwood truly enjoys London assemblies. Where else can she find so many potential sponsors for the school she wishes to establish for the poor children in Huntfield? With her father threatening this will be her final London Season, she must work quickly to secure the funding she needs. The last thing she needs is the interference of the handsome, flirtatious Lord Knightwick who continually draws her away from the matrons she seeks donations from. She will succeed in founding her school, no matter who stands in her way.

(Originally released in A Gentlemen’s Pact) Lord Northcotte is not in the holiday spirit when he joins his sister’s family shortly after the brutal death of a friend. Discovering a matchmaking scheme is afoot, he tells them he will never marry Lady Miriam or any other woman. Now if only his heart would listen. Lady Miriam’s mother accused her of chasing Lord Mystery after a noble act by a handsome gentleman six years ago became the measure of all other men. Now he’s staying at the home where she’d hoped to escape a summons from her grandfather, the Duke of Danby. Terrified Northcotte will recognize her and reveal the contents of the scandalous letter she wrote him years ago, she can’t decide which is the bigger threat: the duke armed with a special license, or Lord Mystery, who carries a secret she’d never live down.

She’s secretly one of the top horse racers in the area, when she’s not riding sidesaddle. Lady Madeleine Lumley can’t bear to part with her brother’s prized stallion, but he must sell it in order to re-establish the family stud after the tragic loss of most of their horses. She convinces her brother to challenge another breeder to a winner-take-all wager in a special race. No one knows that horse better than Madeleine does, and following the rules is not her strong suit, so she schemes to secretly jockey the horse in that race. Then the Duke of Noblegreen gets in the way and ruins her one chance of keeping the stallion. He needs a foundation stallion for his line of racehorses. Noblegreen’s fed up with Polite Society, and if he didn’t fear for Madeleine’s safety, he’d love to see if she could win. But if she does, the horse won’t be on the market and he needs it to establish his horse farm in Virginia. As he gets to know her, his admiration for Madeleine turns into something more, and she is falling in love with him, too. Yet loving him means moving to Virginia and leaving her family behind, a thought she can’t bear, but life without Noblegreen would be bleak. How can she choose between the two?

Certain she has met every man suitable for marriage to the daughter of an earl, Lady Patience Lumley decides to meet the unsuitable ones. She’s not desperate for love and she’s only twenty-two, so why not relax and enjoy her Season in London? Crispin Woodhouse doesn’t take insult when his good friend asks him to behave like a dullard when he meets the man’s sister to convince her she’d be bored married to a man in trade. But when Lady Patience repeatedly interferes with his investigation, he fears she’ll end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Stephen Lumley returns from battle wounded and jaded, only to find his home life had been changed forever. Drowning his sorrows in liquor, he mistakenly blurts out his impassioned proposal to his sweetheart, Jane. Lady Jane Marwick fears she has wasted her love on the wrong man, and allows her mother to convince her to plan another London Season to find a husband. The only certainty in Stephen’s life is his need for Jane’s love. Now Stephen only has a few months to convince himself and Jane he is worthy of her, before she’s off to London to find a man who is.

All she wants is a kiss. At least, that’s what Matilda’s trying to convince herself. A silly wager with her friends—to be the first to kiss one of the friends of the Miscreant Marquess—was won by the marquess’s sister, but Mattie can’t stop thinking about him. One little kiss will free her from her obsession, and she can think about finding a respectable husband like her father wants. He’s sworn to never fall in love again. Colin, the Marquess of Markham enjoys flirting with his sister’s friend, and if he hadn’t been burned so badly in love, he could see himself attracted to her. When he overhears her parents talking about a pending match between Matilda and him, he realizes history is repeating itself. He avoids Matilda at all costs, having vowed to never again lose his heart to a woman in search of a title. Mattie continues to cross Markham’s path, sneaking her way past the walls he’s built around his heart. Can he learn to trust again, and let her into hi heart?

A secret author of romantic adventures meets his biggest fan, and neither of them knows it. While her aunt’s companion is out of town, Lady Evie Sinclair comes to stay with her, knowing her aunt is a notorious matchmaker. To be honest, she wouldn’t mind falling in love if the right man appeared, but as yet, they’ve all been missing a mysterious something that she can’t name. She fears that until she determines what that missing quality is, she has no hope of finding true love. Her aunt’s young doctor, Bertie Walsingham, is secretly the writer of children’s books about a boy knight who slays dragons and keeps his town safe. Evie has been writing to him for a few years since she read his first book. They’ve grown close through the letters, but each thinks they’re writing to an elderly person. Will their bond over children’s literature prove to be the only love they share, or will their story find its happy ending?