Birdie and the Beastly Duke by Sofi Laporte

A battle-scarred duke. A substitute bride. A dangerous secret that brings them together.

The Honorable Roberta Talbot is tired of being the practical one in her family. As the impoverished daughter of a reckless baron, she has spent years supporting her mother and siblings. When a chance-meeting brings an opportunity for adventure her way, Birdie grabs hold and takes it… all the way to a haunted castle in Scotland and into the domain of its beastly lord.

A tormented past…
Captain Gabriel Eversleigh never expected to become the Duke of Dunross. Racked by survivor’s guilt after the Battle of Waterloo, Gabriel wishes for nothing more than to be left in alone in his tower. Bound by honor to fulfill his promise to wed a girl he has never met, Gabriel plans to be a husband in name only.

But the bold young woman who arrives as his bride is irksomely determined to upend both his life and his castle. Worst of all, she pulls on the strings of a heart he thought was long since dead.

A committed wife…
Determined to turn her sham of a marriage into the real-thing, Birdie not only confronts the ghosts of Gabriel’s past but stirs up a dangerous secret hidden deep within the castle walls.
But when Gabriel discovers he’s married the wrong bride, will their love be able to flourish, or will his softening heart harden once more?

♥♥♥

This Beauty and the Beast variation is a sweet Regency romance that is part of the Wishing Well series; however, it can be read as a separate story.