The Unromantic Lady

The heart wants what it wants…

Diantha Halstow is unlike any other woman in Regency society.

With her vast wealth, her demure face and her beautiful figure, she should be a very eligible young lady.

But there is one problem – Diantha doesn’t believe in love, and she ensures that any love-struck bachelor knows it.

Suitors may try their luck, but Diantha is not one to hold her tongue – something which makes her aunt, Lady Greenbourne, despair of her and her unladylike talk.

Meanwhile, Rexford Lytham has inherited his uncle’s title of Earl of Chartridge and with it, the old man’s gargantuan debts.

It seems that the only way to save Chartridge Abbey and its surrounding tenants is for Rex to marry a wealthy Lady.

But Rex is as wary of love as Diantha is.

His friends and brother, Major George Lytham, all conspire to match him with Diantha, while Lady Greenbourne believes that a sensible young man like Rex is perfect for the unromantic Diantha.

Yet the two young singletons soon guessed their relations’ plot and conspired to foil it.

However, Diantha is impressed by Rex’s honesty, and in turn, he is impressed by her reasoning.

So they agree to marry in a union of convenience – Rex for her fortune and Diantha for his title and her freedom.

But it seems Rex is hiding a dark secret, and Diantha is determined to find out what it is.

While they set about fixing Rex’s estate and debts, and helping their friends and relations along the way, Diantha tries her best to get the truth out of Rex.

Diantha knows it shouldn’t worry her – after all, neither of them are so unreasonable to fall in love with one another – surely?

Or are they not as immune to love as either of them thought?

As war looms once more over Europe, perhaps reason no longer matters…

Lucy Gordon began working life on a British women's magazine, where she interviewed famous men like Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guinness, Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain and Charlton Heston. But since 1984, she has been publishing her romance novels – twice winning the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for the Best Traditional Romance. She is now married to a Venetian artist and together, they have lived in different parts of Italy, though currently reside in her native England.