When an Earl Loves a Governess by Chasity Bowlin

That kiss would never be enough. And if he let it continue, it would become something else altogether—something his honor could never permit.

Widower Simon Montclair, Earl of Eastlington, has been battling more than his guilt over the questionable death of his late wife. Her mother, Mercy Milthorpe, had been a godsend to him in the beginning as she’d provided the help he needed to raise his young daughter. But over time, Simon came to realize that Mercy was poisoning Emily against him for reasons that he could not fathom. Desperate for help, he turns to the Darrow School and the lovely Miss Vivienne Alcott for aid.

Vivienne instantly falls in love with Emily, a child so painfully haunted by her mother’s death and so tormented by the insidious whispers of her grandmother that she has become like a ghost herself. But her desire to help Emily is complicated by her attraction Simon. The longer Vivienne remains at the isolated country estate, Edgecomb Manor, the more she realizes just how ruthless Mercy Milthorpe is—and how hopeless she is to resist the earl.

Simon and Vivienne must determine whether or not they can join forces to save Emily without giving in to their feelings for one another. But Mercy realizes that, with Vivienne’s presence, it will take far more than just alienating Emily from her father to secure Mercy’s own position.
And the depths she sinks to will shock them all…