London, 1819.


Adelaide, Lady Leeson, lives behind a beautifully polished lie.


Her husband, Tristan, is everything society admires: honourable, self-controlled, a reforming MP with an unshakable sense of duty. He treats Adelaide with tender care, believing her fragile ever since she fled Brussels after the Duchess of Richmond’s ball on 15 June 1815—the glittering night before Quatre Bras.


Adelaide has let him believe it.


Because her mother insists upon the deception.


Because the truth would shatter the life Tristan thinks he is protecting.


And because the cruelest sorrow of her marriage is that she does not want a guardian. She wants a husband.


She longs for Tristan with a passion she has been taught to fear. For desire is dangerous, and a woman’s surrender a kind of ruin.


Then James returns.


Once a reckless, half-drowned youth Tristan saved from death, James is now a celebrated poet whose scandalous verses have set London ablaze. Society is desperate to discover the woman who inspired them.


James plays on their anticipation.


He has found his muse again—and she is wearing his dearest friend’s ring.


As old loyalties fray and buried truths press closer to the light, Adelaide is caught between the safety of silence and the peril of honesty. But when longing, guilt, and obsession collide, she must decide whether to remain the delicate wife the world expects… or risk everything for the truth that could finally set her free.


A lush, emotionally charged Regency romance of passion, restraint, betrayal, and redemption—with a hard-won hopeful ending.


Previously published as The Maid of Milan, a UK Festival of Romance Top Ten Reads selection.
Here's what the readers say:


"My goodness, this was an intense and highly emotional book!" ~ Kindle Reader


"I think this was possibly the most gripping second chances story I have read this year!


What happens in Tristan and Addy's romance had me going through a whole range of emotions as I read deep into the night and again today until I finished." ~ Kindle Reader


"An intriguing story … with lots of twists and turns and surprises.” ~ Kindle Reader


"Wonderful characters and a really fabulous story which I just have to recommend!" ~ Kindle Reader


"I just finished reading this novel (second in the series) and I’m sorry it’s finished!! Incredible story! Great characters! Lives interwoven, some a tangled mess! Love, lies, betrayal, even a murder! This story has it all!! And when it looks like all lives have been destroyed, you won’t believe the ending!" ~ Kindle reader