As a duke's daughter, Lady Kathleen Carhart is the epitome
of society, married to a man who is heir to his cousin, a
marquess. Just three short months of marriage and
Edward "Ned" leaves London for China to oversee family
business. Three years later Kate is still waiting for her
husband and has been subjected to wagers in bedding her,
with no winners. Kate's energy is spent in spiriting away
the marquess' sister, Laura Beeton, and her infant son from
a physically abusive husband, Alex, the Viscount Beeton.
Shock awaits Kate as Ned suddenly returns, a changed man,
complete with personal dragons to slay. In trying to renew
their marriage, Ned finds it impossible to open up and
reveal his secrets to Kate until she is threatened by Alex
for helping his wife escape. Ned struggles to come to terms
with the fact that his best friend could be the monster he
is accused of being. Trust becomes the issue for Ned to
again claim his beautiful wife.
I thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating plot devised by
Courtney Milan. Kate and Ned are loving and
vivacious characters searching for the serenity of being
husband and wife. Kate is exceptionally strong and
motivated and extremely loyal to husband and friends. The
pages flew past and ended far too quickly.
Lady Kathleen Carhart has everything she could want:
generous pin-money, a fulfilling life of charity, and a
husband who lives six thousand miles away. But then her
husband returns. Ned Carhart returned to help his best
friend find his wife, who has disappeared. And now he’s
inquiring into the carefully-guarded secrets Kate has
kept. Ned is as determined to understand Kate as he is to
discover the whereabouts of the missing woman. And that is
the least convenient part of their marriage, as Kate is
the one who stole her away in the first place.