Almost a Duchess, Never a Lady by Emma Linfield

A sky full of stars and still she shone the brightest…

Her inability to read and write properly has made Lady Eleanor Lockhart the laughing stock of the ton. Growing up without a mother to teach her how to navigate the social scene, Eleanor has isolated herself and is determined to spend the rest of her life caring for her aging father.

When his father’s passing forces Hugh Covington to return to England to assume the title of Duke of Steephelm, he wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Until a chance meeting with a lady stirs something inside him. A lady he hasn’t seen in over ten years.

After Eleanor’s father announces that she is to be wed, Hugh knows he must act before he loses her to another man. When Eleanor falls victim to a series of seemingly innocuous accidents, he just might lose her to something else first. For bloody is the price you pay for betrayal…