Flaming June by Emma V. Leech

When the beautiful Lady Isabella Scranford finds herself in the family way and her lover refuses to do the honourable thing, she knows her life is at an end. With a reputation for being a cold-hearted bitch, there will be no sympathy for her, only shame and ridicule. Finding that even her best – and only – friend refuses to be associated with her any longer, Isabella decides she cannot go on and makes a fateful decision.

Henry Barbour is known locally as the Bear of Barcham Wood. Living alone in the vast and decaying splendour of Barcham Place, surrounded by wilderness and woodland, he inspires such tales of madness that no one locally will go near the once grand house.
When a filthy and frightening man rescues Isabella from drowning, she begins to believe her fate has taken an even darker turn. Yet appearances can be deceptive and an unlikely bond is created between two damaged souls who need to hide from the world.

As Isabella comes to understand the meaning of compassion, she begins to realise that the most important things in life are not at all what she expected them to be.