Cirrus@Austlit

'Alice loves her family, but longs for independence…

'Lady Alice Thomasina Balfour is the acknowledged daughter of Dane, Duke of Wakefield, but her real father is Benjamin Hedley, her mother’s secret and lifelong partner. Her third father is Stephen Spearing, Esq., who is Dane’s secret partner. Alice is torn between her beloved family and their expectations and her need for the independence young, modern women are beginning to enjoy, which she believes she can have if she opens her own shop. She needs funds to do so, but as a woman, cannot take a loan with any bank. Her family for once, are not supportive.

'Garrick Lawrence Wortham is not a peer, but thanks to his family’s fortune and upper-class status, he is expected to marry into the peerage and solidify the family’s reputation. After refusing yet another debutante, Garrick feels obliged to bow to his father’s wishes to fund and manage a new, shocking project; the opening of a retail establishment by the daughter of the Duke of Wakefield, a peer whose family have fallen into disgrace and social ruin. But managing the willful woman’s new business venture is more taxing than he expected. It doesn’t help that the lovely Lady Alice is prickly, defensive and hiding secrets that, as he learns more, brings him to make an outrageous proposal…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.