Miss Alexandra Matthews is destitute after her father dies and leaves her nothing to fend for herself. She is forced to seek employment and takes a position as a governess for the children of the Duke of Graystone.

True love is for fairy tales. At least that is what Miss Hannah Knight believes. Her formative years were filled with difficulties, but she carries one memory with her always—even through the darkest times. The summer she spent at Manchester Castle where she started to dream of a happily-ever-after in the arms of the man who holds her heart. War has left Garrick Edwards cynical. He never expected to inherit the title and become the Earl of Manchester, but his brother drank himself into an early grave leaving a daughter behind and a mountain of debt. Reluctantly, he returns to his ancestral home. When he arrives he finds Hannah there. Her letters during the war had given him hope when there was none; however he doesn’t believe he deserves her love.  

The brooding, illegitimate son of a duke meets his match in the determined woman hired to transform him into a gentleman.

As the daughter of a famed courtesan, Julianna de Lacy had seen more than her share of heartbreak. As a child, her own heart was broken the night her mother dragged her from the Marquess Devereaux’s mansion and forced her into a stranger’s carriage. It was not the fear of meeting her mother’s new lover that had Julianna sobbing, but the fact she was leaving Bennet Devereaux - the marquess’ young son and Julianna’s only friend. Their parting words became a mantra she recited every night before bed.

Phoebe Smythe, countess of Borwick, suffers a tragic miscarriage when she learns her husband and young son have been killed in a carriage accident. The grieving widow retreats to an isolated cottage on the coast of Cornwall, where she finds a smuggler who’s washed ashore, blood leaking from a bullet wound.