Wayward by Carole Mortimer

Gideon Rhodes, the Duke of Esher. Gideon felt a heavy weight in his chest as he watched a coach approaching down the long driveway to his Cornish estate, the home where he had retreated ten years ago after being ostracised by Society following the sudden death of his wife. Then two weeks ago he had received a letter from a solicitor telling him that he was now the guardian of nineteen-year-old Lady Lydia Montague, the daughter of his one-time friend, Lord Michael Montague, the Earl of Chessington. Quite what Gideon is to do with that young woman, once she is residing in his household with him, he has no idea. Until he sees her for the first time and knows that the only thing he desires of Lydia is to have her beneath him, in his bed, as he claims her for his own.

Lady Lydia Montague. She had never even heard of the Gideon Rhodes before her father’s solicitor informed her the duke was to be her guardian now that her father had succumbed to the wounds he had received during the Battle of Waterloo. Unfortunately, once it became public knowledge Lydia was to be Esher’s ward until her twenty-first birthday, she was bombarded with information about the man. Rumour said he had been a cruel husband. That he had murdered his wife. That he was now a scarred recluse living in the wilds of Cornwall.

All Lydia knew of him for certain was that she was to be his ward and live with him for the next two years. Then she sees him for the first time. Gideon is tall, dark, and indeed scarred. He also causes her pulse to race, her body to heat, and she can think of nothing but the two of them naked together, their limbs and bodies entwined. The moment Gideon looks at her his eyes seem to darken with that same desire. But what of his dead wife? Is it possible Gideon did kill her? And if he did, will Lydia receive the same fate if she allows the attraction between them to deepen?