Showing results by author "Chasity Bowlin" in All Categories

Welcome to Book One in "The Hellion Club", the nickname for the Darrow School, where miscreant noblemen send their illegitimate daughters to keep them out of sight, out of mind, and to make them employable.

Graham, Lord Blakemore, was believed to be lost at sea as a boy. While his mother, Lady Agatha, has never given up hope of finding her son again, others - eager for the title and the wealth that accompanies it - have been conspiring to have him declared dead against Lady Agatha's wishes. Her only ally in the house is her late husband's ward, Miss Beatrice Marlowe. But when a dark-haired stranger arrives on their doorstep claiming to be the lost heir to Castle Black, the plots and schemes of those who would have the castle for themselves take a dark and even more sinister turn.

Communing with spirits has been both gift and curse to Emme Walters. Now it's made her a killer's target. Emme knows why the Dowager Duchess of Briarleigh invited her to a house party--to investigate whether the duke, Rhys Brammel, murdered his wife years ago. But Emme never imagined she would fall in love with the brooding duke. Branded by society as a possible killer, Rhys is suspicious of Emme and her alleged "gift." Then a late night encounter creates awareness of her other, more attractive, aspects. When Emme's life is threatened, Rhys becomes her protector. Emme and Rhys find passion and peril as they join forces to solve the mysteries at Briarleigh. She made him believe in spirits, but can she make him believe in love?

Lillian Burkhart could not be more different from her half-sister Wilhelmina. Suspecting that she is more like their wastrel father, she struggles against the wildness inside her, trying desperately to be the proper young woman that Miss Euphemia Darrow has reared her to be. But when she’s discovered walking barefoot in Hyde Park by none other than the grandson of the elderly dowager duchess who employs her as a companion, her failure is complete.

A shipwreck near Castle Black sees Dr. Nicholas Warner risking his life to save a woman from the churning sea. As he pulls her to the safety of the shore, the villagers are stunned by her presence. She is no stranger to them. They identify her as Viola Grantham, Lady Ramsleigh, wife of the recently deceased Lord Percival Ramsleigh...a woman who supposedly died nearly two years earlier. She confides in Dr. Warner about the son she bore in secret, the heir to her late husband and that she had only returned to secure his future and his place in society.

Elizabeth Masters has put her scandalous and painful past behind her. She's taken a position as companion to the tragic Lady Vale and her primary duty is to dissuade the woman from believing that everyone from the butcher's delivery boy to the ostler at an inn is her missing son. But a late-night visit to an alleged mystic in the city of Bath results in near-tragedy as Elizabeth is nearly abducted by ruffians waiting for them outside. They are rescued by a handsome and mysterious stranger who calls himself Benedict, the very name of Lady Vale's lost son.

Abducted, held captive by unknown men for unknown reasons, Mary Mason had to use all of her resourcefulness to escape what would surely have been a terrible fate. But in the course of her escape, she encounters new dangers in the form of a mysterious man. Is he friend or foe? Can he be trusted, or will she prove to be just a pawn in whatever game he is playing?

Having no fortune, a negligible reputation, and an appearance that could only be described as plain, Miss Olympia Daventry has few prospects. Unless, of course, she elects to remain in her aunt's home dodging her uncle's amourous advances and his sermons, both of which are dished out in equal measure. Out of desperation, she accepts an offer of marriage from a man she has never met. Married by proxy, she travels to his home and at her first sight of it, begins to wonder if perhaps she has not made a terrible mistake.

Lord Michael Sutherland, Viscount Ellersleigh, is infamous among the ton for his powers of seduction and his prowess as a lover. Running from his own ennui and a lover who fancies herself his future wife, Michael retreats to the country and a crumbling, haunted castle won in a game of chance...a castle occupied by an innocent and oh-so-tempting young woman, Miss Abbigail Barrows. But country life proves to be anything but quiet. At a debauched house party, Michael finds himself confronted with an unfortunate quandary: Marry Abbigail, an innocent, or hang for murder.

Chaos! That is what greets Miss Calliope St. James when she enters the household of her prospective employer, Lord Winn Hamilton, the Earl of Montgomery. The newly appointed guardian for his nieces and nephew, he’s clearly a man who has no idea what to do with children…and they are children who clearly know when the adults in charge haven’t a clue what they’re doing. But he is handsome. Terribly, temptingly handsome, even when he’s maddening.

Betrothed to Marcus Balfour, Marquess Althorn since infancy, the entirety of Miss Jane Barrett's life has been planned for her by others. Through an overheard argument, Jane discovers at a tender age that her betrothed is opposed to the match. The knowledge wounds her deeply and sows the first seeds of rebellion in her. Rather than marry her, the Marquess joins the army but disappears in one of the war's bloodiest battles.

Althea is used to being forgotten. She is used to being ignored. She is also very much used to loving Lord Mayville from afar while being utterly certain he has never glanced her way. But when he drunkenly stumbles into her bedchamber one night, she's stunned. So stunned that she screams down the rafters, bringing her father and patrons from the nearby tavern running.

Miss Penelope Dennings grew a conscience and made an enemy. By confessing her role in the events that nearly destroyed the marriage of Lord and Lady Mayville, she helped to bring them back together… but it has cost her everything. Her friends have turned their backs on her and she is all but a pariah in society. Theo Blake, Lord Ralston, is a man who needs a wife. Any wife. His title and entailed estates are secure, but a significant inheritance hangs in the balance if he remains a bachelor. There’s only one problem.

Aurora Sefton, Lady Sheffield, has been a widow for almost as long as she was a wife. Of the two states, widowhood has always been much preferred. She lives independently, enjoying her freedom, her wealth, and her occasional lovers. Then she's asked for a favor from an old friend...to take the unexpected heir to a dukedom that had very nearly gone extinct and turn this rough laborer into a gentleman. But Gavin Barreton, the Duke of Westerhaven, is much more than she ever bargained for.

Madame Sabine de Roussard has become one of the most fashionable modistes in London, but she’s hiding a terrible secret. Or several. First, she isn’t really French. Second, her name isn’t actually Sabine de Roussard. Third, she fled her home in Yorkshire to vanish in the cosmopolitan city of London because she had, albeit inadvertently, killed her abusive husband.

Lord Victor Mayhew, Viscount Norcross, lives in the shadows, hiding his scarred face from those who would fear him...or worse, pity him. He's become accustomed to the dark, and to the aching loneliness that is his only and constant companion. But while traversing the city in the dark of night, he encounters a beautiful woman who is running for her life.

Miss Olivia Dunne was the darling of society, until a thwarted abduction and elopement scheme by an unscrupulous man left her reputation in tatters. But having moved from paragon to pariah, Olivia realizes that there is no reason for her to continue abiding by society’s mandates. In fact, she decides to embrace her scandalous nature and do the very thing she’s been accused of...take a lover. The man she’s chosen is one she’s secretly loved for years, but she’ll need to employ the aid of an unlikely ally to carry it off.

It was a blow to Persephone “Percy” Blake’s vanity to discover that she’d somehow become a spinster aunt. It’s certainly not what she set out to be. She had just been working away in her father’s library, cataloging historical documents. Then one day she looked up to find that 10 years had passed and she was firmly on the shelf. Now, with the recent passing of her father, the country estate and the library are long gone.

Spencer, Lord Wolverston, and newly named Earl of Kinraven, intended to find peace in the wilds of Scotland, far from the torment of wanting the one woman he believed he could never have. But his inheritance has come with a price he had not foreseen...a curse that is slowly driving him mad. He sends a desperate plea for help to his friend, the Duke of Briarleigh, but that plea is intercepted by the last person he wishes to see... the Duke's sister-in-law, Miss Larissa Walters, the women he left England to escape.

When an old acquaintance asks Lord Sebastian Strong to look into the strange goings on at a remote family property, he agrees, naturally...for a price. After all, as a younger son, he has to make his own way in the world. If that means convincing a gaggle of spinsters in the throes of senility that their ancestral home isn’t haunted, he’s game for it. But when he arrives at Evenwold Manor, the woman who greets him looks like no spinster he’s ever encountered.