There is absolutely nothing improper about Hannah Foster, the vicar of Hartley’s eldest and least pretty daughter, nursing the badly wounded Viscount Blackthorn back to health—that’s if the returned officer can be saved. At twenty-seven, she is two years the man’s senior, a confirmed spinster, and far too sensible to develop feelings for her patient. The fact he was once her childhood friend, has grown into a fine specimen of a man—his terrible scars notwithstanding—and seems as lost and lonely as she sometimes feels has no bearing on the matter.

Even if the unthinkable were to happen and the viscount was to see past her plain exterior and recognise the caring, intelligent, passionate woman beneath, he is determined to break the curse that has plagued his family for generations by letting his bloodline die out. Her best friend Grace’s warnings are moot; a man of Lord Blackthorn’s wealth and position would never be interested in a woman like Hannah . . . would he?