She arrived with one trunk, three rules, and no intention of falling in love.
He is Caius Blackmore, Duke of Ravenscroft — a man who has spent eight years turning grief into ritual and silence into habit. Every night at midnight he lights a chalice for his dead sister. Every night, the chair beside him is empty. He has decided this is enough.
It is not enough.
She is Corinna Ashvale — sharp, precise, and entirely out of options. Her brother's catastrophic debts have left her one choice: enter a three-month betrothal arrangement with a duke she has never met, or watch her family lose everything. She arrives at Ravenscroft House with strict rules for herself.
The rules last approximately six days.
What begins as a practical arrangement — a careful performance for a watchful ton — becomes something neither of them planned for. Chess games that reveal more than either intends. A snowstorm that strands them together for three days. A poisoning. A conspiracy reaching into Parliament. And a chalice that burns each night on the mantelpiece, for a woman neither of them will let be forgotten.
Corinna came to Ravenscroft to save her brother. She did not come to dismantle an eight-year mystery, navigate the razor-edged world of Regency London society, or notice the way a grief-hollowed duke turns his palm up in the firelight.
But she is thorough about everything she cares about.
She is becoming thorough about him.
Genre: Historical Mystery
He is Caius Blackmore, Duke of Ravenscroft — a man who has spent eight years turning grief into ritual and silence into habit. Every night at midnight he lights a chalice for his dead sister. Every night, the chair beside him is empty. He has decided this is enough.
It is not enough.
She is Corinna Ashvale — sharp, precise, and entirely out of options. Her brother's catastrophic debts have left her one choice: enter a three-month betrothal arrangement with a duke she has never met, or watch her family lose everything. She arrives at Ravenscroft House with strict rules for herself.
The rules last approximately six days.
What begins as a practical arrangement — a careful performance for a watchful ton — becomes something neither of them planned for. Chess games that reveal more than either intends. A snowstorm that strands them together for three days. A poisoning. A conspiracy reaching into Parliament. And a chalice that burns each night on the mantelpiece, for a woman neither of them will let be forgotten.
Corinna came to Ravenscroft to save her brother. She did not come to dismantle an eight-year mystery, navigate the razor-edged world of Regency London society, or notice the way a grief-hollowed duke turns his palm up in the firelight.
But she is thorough about everything she cares about.
She is becoming thorough about him.
Genre: Historical Mystery
Used availability for Zoe Sinclair's The Duke's Chalice