L'homme qui avait tout perdu

Résumé

Ruiné par la guerre de Sécession qui a ravagé le Kentucky, Brandon Caruthers, voit avec désespoir le fisc s'emparer de sa plantation. Pour survivre, il en est réduit à engager ses pur-sang, miraculeusement sauvés du désastre, dans des courses. Lorsqu'il apprend qu'il hérite d'un lointain cousin anglais, Brandon reprend espoir. Malheureusement, une déception l'attend à son arrivée en Angleterre : la fortune qu'il espérait se réduit à un titre de noblesse et à quelques propriétés délabrées. Pourtant, son titre de baron Rushcroft lui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives : de nombreuses riches roturières rêvent d'épouser un aristocrate. Cette solution lui permettrait de racheter les terres de ses ancêtres. Brandon refuse d'abord d'envisager une tractation aussi vénale. Acculé par les dettes, il se résout finalement à rencontrer Miranda Auburn, une riche et séduisante veuve, qui cherche à marier sa fille.

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A YOUNGER MAN…

Former Confederate major Brandon Caruthers is on a roll…of bad luck. He has lost the war, his fiancée and his Kentucky horse farm. When he inherits an English title, the new Baron Rushcroft learns from his London solicitor that his estates are bankrupt. So much for building a new life in a new land.

AN OLDER WOMAN…

That’s when imperious widow Miranda Auburn offers him a stroke of good luck. Tough and rich as a Yankee robber baron, she wants a title for her lovely young daughter. Brand chokes down that monumental rebel pride and agrees to court the girl in return for a loan to save his estates. But complications arise as he finds himself drawn to the frosty mother rather than the nubile daughter. When Lori gleefully begins to play matchmaker, the skittish Miranda realizes that her daughter’s “suitor” is falling in love with her. As a proper Victorian matron, she is horrified at her own attraction to Brand.

A DESPERATE GAMBLE…

Her reaction makes the Battle of Bull Run seem like a ride through Hyde Park. But the London newspapers don’t call him the Rebel Baron for nothing. He has lost much, but damned if he will lose the woman he loves—neither to her fearful pride, nor to the mysterious enemy who is trying to kill her.

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An Older Woman

To survive the cutthroat world of Victorian high finance, wealthy widow Miranda Auburn hid her femininity behind a facade of cold calculation. Her only womanly emotions were reserved for her daughter, whose fondest wish was to marry a peer.

A Younger Man

Brandon Caruthers had hoped to put the lost cause of the Confederacy behind him when he traveled to London to become Baron Rushcroft. But the only way to salvage his impoverished estate was to marry an heiress.

A Business Proposal

The transaction Miranda proposed seemed to suit all involved—a huge loan in exchange for making her daughter a baroness—until Brand found himself craving the mother instead. Even if it caused a private civil war, he vowed to take the right woman to his bed.