Mercedes Casemer

Eighteen years ago, the desperate and heavily pregnant noblewoman Rhonda fled as a stowaway aboard a ship bound for America. Now she returns to England a wealthy woman, determined to introduce her illegitimate daughter, Amber, into Victorian society.

But when Rhonda is blackmailed, threatened, and forced to confront the ghosts of her past, she suffers a devastating emotional collapse.

Amber finds refuge with her great-aunt, the Duchess of Mullgrove, where she discovers not only a strange new world but also love.

Meanwhile, the Duchess pieces together the loose threads of Rhonda’s past, seeking to reconcile her with her family—and free her heart for true love.

The key to it all: a long-lost medallion.

Once again, the Duchess of Mullgrove cannot resist meddling, and does her old friend Alice a favor by arranging for the orphan Rose to be placed in the household of the widowed Earl of Lingdarthom.

Officially, Rose becomes the companion to Pearl, the Earl’s daughter. The two young women quickly form a friendship.

But the true motive is to unite Rose with the seemingly melancholic Earl of Lingdarthom, so that there might finally be a male heir. Yet nothing is as it appears.