Dear Reader,
This is the story of how I, a penniless upstart,
became a countess.
I never set out to be the heroine in a romantic
tale of derring-do. As a spinster of five-and-twenty, I was
much too practical to imagine myself tracking a dangerous
criminal or falling prey to ardent nonsense. Nor did I ever
envision myself entering the gilded ballrooms of society
where indolent aristocrats nibbled cake and traded gossip.
But that was before my father was wrongfully imprisoned as
a jewel thief.
Determined to uncover the true criminal, I posed
as an impoverished widow and secured a post in the grand
household of a noble family – the very family that had
cruelly cast out my mother many years ago. Of course, they
knew not who I was. To them, I was merely a servant, an
invisible hireling. And little did I know, my daring plan
would throw me into the path of Simon Croft, the almighty
Earl of Rockford.
Arrogant, charming, and too handsome for his own
good, he might have walked straight off a pedestal in a
museum. I had no use for such a rogue, yet from the moment
of our first meeting, he tempted my unruly heart. And soon,
he threatened my schemes as well, for Simon had secrets of
his own….
—Claire, the Countess of Rockford
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