Scandal's Heiress

Miss Hyacinth Grey has had a quiet life, managing her father's household in Gibraltar. Then she learns that she's heir to a small fortune, left by her grandmother, an infamous courtesan. She sets sail for England with plans to found a charitable school for girls. Her father warns her away from her fellow passenger aboard the Whistler, saying that he's a black sheep from a family of scoundrels. Thomas Pently, alias Smithson, made his fortune in the East India Company. Then his mistress was murdered, and his aristocratic family summoned him home. He's now second in line to his uncle's duchy, after his aging father. Memories of their shipboard friendship draw them together again and again, as they find their footing in an unfamiliar home country.