An emotionally damaged widow with a dark secret falls for a rough diamond of a soldier.

Beautiful Isabella Hope was married ten years ago at eighteen to Marcus, the spoiled and spiteful young Duke of Stourbridge. When her beloved father died shortly afterwards, Isabella inherited his wealth, which Marcus took control of.

Marcus turns out to be a cruel husband and a serial adulterer, continually flaunting his mistresses. He holds it against Isabella that she hasn’t given him the heir he needs, and when he dies in mysterious circumstances, his title and estate pass to the cousin he bullied when they were children.

Captain Richard Carstairs, Marcus’s long-estranged cousin, is a rough diamond of a man who’s been off soldiering since he was a boy. Eventually, Richard receives news of his inheritance and returns from the peninsula to claim his title and property. He discovers he has a sitting tenant at his country estate – the previous duke’s enticing widow. A widow who might be guarding a terrifying secret.

Richard decides to marry in a hurry and get himself an heir so he can return to what he loves best – soldiering. To this end, he asks Isabella to find him a suitable bride, and in so doing, he discovers that she is the woman for him.

But the possibility arises that Isabella knows more than she’s letting on about how her husband died… then Richard must use all his wits in a race to save the woman he’s come to love.

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Tropes/themes:

✅ Emotionally damaged widow

✅ Grumpy / stoic hero

✅ Enemies to lovers (slow-burn tension)

✅ Forced proximity / living under the same roof

✅ Dark secret / hidden past

✅ Redemption arc

✅ Opposites attract

✅ Rough-around-the-edges hero

✅ Healing through love

✅ Suspense / mystery element