The Rake and Lady Julia

Lady Julia Cavendish has always been a most sensible and practical young woman. So when her parents declare that she must marry, or spend the rest of her days acting as a companion to her dreadful Aunt Mildred, she agrees. Love, she believes, is not real, and an advantageous marriage is far preferable to the life of a servant. But then she meets Lord Montague... The only son of the house her family has been quarrelling with for centuries, he is the last person a sensible and practical girl would think to fall in love. But try as she might, Julia cannot resist the rake's charm and smiles, and finds herself falling head over heels into something she believed was impossible. Robert William Montague, current holder of the title Marquess of Thornbrook and heir to the Ducal Seat of Staffordshire, has fallen in love. Again. But this time, he has not given his heart to an unsuitable actress, or an outrageous opera singer. No, this time, he has given it to a lady, and he has given it away for the last time. True, the lady in question seems reluctant to accept his heart, and even more determined to talk her way out of falling in love with him, but Robert is determined. Their two lost souls will find a home together if Robert can just convince Lady Julia to see the light. As Julia struggles to trust a rake with such a tarnished past, Robert must prove himself to be a changed man. But when the families' enmity boils over into violence once again, it will take a miracle to join these two star-crossed lovers... ...or at the very least, a little help from Julia's fellow wallflowers.