The Mourning Duke of Sableford
(2026)(The first book in the Sableford Scandals series)
A novel by Claire Bessey
A guarded duke. A practical funeral woman. A rushed burial. And a raven who keeps stealing the wrong pieces of evidence.
Cassian Veyne, Duke of Alderwick, returns to Sableford House after the sudden death of his mother’s third husband, Lord Edric Fane. Society is already sharpening its tongue. Althea Veyne, Dowager Countess of Sableford, has buried three husbands, and polite London has never forgiven a woman for surviving too much scandal.
Cassian expects grief, gossip, and family tension. He does not expect Tamsin Crowther.
Tamsin is the funeral director’s daughter, skilled, observant, and far too practical to be impressed by rank. While arranging Lord Edric’s funeral, she notices details the aristocratic household would rather ignore: the coffin was ordered too early, the mourning clothes do not match the record, the death certificate bears signs of alteration, and someone is desperate to hurry Lord Edric into the ground before questions can be asked.
Cassian wants control. Tamsin wants the truth. Neither wants the dangerous attraction growing between them.
As they follow a trail of black wax, hidden letters, altered documents, and one stolen mourning pin, Cassian and Tamsin uncover more than a suspicious death. Lord Edric was not merely an inconvenient husband. He had discovered something tied to the Sableford Settlement, an old legal arrangement built from inheritance, silence, and family power.
Now someone inside Sableford House is willing to kill to keep the past buried.
With society watching, his mother hiding more than grief, and a one-eyed raven named Nox dragging clues into plain sight, Cassian must decide what matters more: protecting the family name or trusting the one woman sharp enough to expose the lie.
The Mourning Duke of Sableford is a clean Regency romantic mystery filled with aristocratic scandal, closed-door romance, family secrets, suspicious death, blackmail shadows, old documents, and a slow-burn partnership between a guarded duke and a woman who refuses to be dismissed.
Perfect for readers who enjoy clean historical romance, Regency mystery, romantic suspense, clever heroines, wounded titled heroes, fair-play clues, and mystery series with a larger family conspiracy.
Genre: Historical Romance
Cassian Veyne, Duke of Alderwick, returns to Sableford House after the sudden death of his mother’s third husband, Lord Edric Fane. Society is already sharpening its tongue. Althea Veyne, Dowager Countess of Sableford, has buried three husbands, and polite London has never forgiven a woman for surviving too much scandal.
Cassian expects grief, gossip, and family tension. He does not expect Tamsin Crowther.
Tamsin is the funeral director’s daughter, skilled, observant, and far too practical to be impressed by rank. While arranging Lord Edric’s funeral, she notices details the aristocratic household would rather ignore: the coffin was ordered too early, the mourning clothes do not match the record, the death certificate bears signs of alteration, and someone is desperate to hurry Lord Edric into the ground before questions can be asked.
Cassian wants control. Tamsin wants the truth. Neither wants the dangerous attraction growing between them.
As they follow a trail of black wax, hidden letters, altered documents, and one stolen mourning pin, Cassian and Tamsin uncover more than a suspicious death. Lord Edric was not merely an inconvenient husband. He had discovered something tied to the Sableford Settlement, an old legal arrangement built from inheritance, silence, and family power.
Now someone inside Sableford House is willing to kill to keep the past buried.
With society watching, his mother hiding more than grief, and a one-eyed raven named Nox dragging clues into plain sight, Cassian must decide what matters more: protecting the family name or trusting the one woman sharp enough to expose the lie.
The Mourning Duke of Sableford is a clean Regency romantic mystery filled with aristocratic scandal, closed-door romance, family secrets, suspicious death, blackmail shadows, old documents, and a slow-burn partnership between a guarded duke and a woman who refuses to be dismissed.
Perfect for readers who enjoy clean historical romance, Regency mystery, romantic suspense, clever heroines, wounded titled heroes, fair-play clues, and mystery series with a larger family conspiracy.
Genre: Historical Romance
Used availability for Claire Bessey's The Mourning Duke of Sableford