Synopsis from Amazon:Setting: London, 1840
Sensuality: 8
When Queen Victoria threatens to reveal a youthful indiscretion if her friend, Devon Mathewes, earl of Kerrich, doesn't strive for respectability, the rakish earl approaches the Academy of Governesses to hire a governess and orphan to sponsor, thus lending him an appearance of kindness and decency. Confident that she's safe from temptation since she despises rakes, Miss Pamela Lockhart disguises her youthful beauty and accepts Devon's outrageous offer of employment. But Pamela isn't prepared for the impact the handsome, blunt-spoken earl has on her heart. And Devon is fairly stunned to find himself attracted to the frumpy governess with her thick glasses and sharp moral lectures. While the two struggle with their intense attraction, serious skulduggery is afoot that involves Devon's family bank. The perpetrators may be closely tied to the Mathewes family and scandal looms large on the horizon. And while he should be concentrating on solving the threat to the bank, Pamela and her endearing orphan prove to be monumentally distracting. In the end, however, Devon may have to choose between the two, and either way, the loss will be tremendous.
My rating: 5 stars
Excerpt: [from Chapter 1]
This was the best day of the month, payday.
Miss Pamela Lockhart gave a light-hearted skip as she made her way toward home. The residential London street might be prematurely dark from the rain, she might be chilled and wretched, and once again she'd had to try to teach tone-deaf little Lorraine Dagworth how to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the pianoforte, but she had easily collected the month's fee from Lorraine's mother. She had also, after a bit of struggle, collected from the aristocratic Lady Phillips. And finally she had given Lord Haggerty's son his dancing lesson and—while fending off both the younger man's groping and the older man's offer of an ignominious affair—secured the month's reimbursement without offending either of the loathsome gentlemen.
Yes, a governess's work proved difficult and occasionally abhorrent, but payday, glorious payday, made it all worthwhile, and as Pamela cut through the filthy, garbage-filled alley, she tipped up her head to the raindrops and laughed aloud—and stumbled to a halt.
Something snagged her skirt. A protruding board, perhaps, or…
A sharp point jabbed at her back and a rough voice snarled, "Give me that purse ye've got hidden in yer bosom, miss, an' I might spare yer life."
Pamela froze, heart pounding. That object… a knife! A thief held a knife to her back. He might stab her. She might die.
He wanted to steal her money.
The knife prodded her, and the man snarled right in her ear, sending the stench of gin and tobacco on the puff of foul breath. "I said, give me that purse. No denyin' ye've got it, miss. I saw ye at th' greengrocers payin' fer them pretty strawberries."
She clutched the bag with her purchase. Rain sluiced endlessly down. No one remained in sight; everyone with any sense had hurried home to sit before his fire and toast his toes. Only she remained, bait for this footpad who planned to steal her beautiful, hard-earned, just-collected cash.
The blade jabbed again, and the thieving fiend grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise it. "Are ye a half-wit? I said give me yer money or I'll kill ye."
Frustration roiled within her. Frustration, anger and despair.
The knife jabbed deeper. She felt the pop of threads as it cut through her gown and corset cover.
She snapped, "Let me think about it."
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