Series of Elements

Along with her triplet sisters, Lady Beaujolais Winslow is a celebrated beauty, but after five seasons she has yet to find a match she finds tolerable. Since her father refuses to arrange a marriage, it is rumoured in London society that she is holding out for a duke. Benedict Stanton, Duke of Yardley, vowed never to marry again when his first marriage ended in a scandalous divorce. Having retreated to the country for nearly a decade, he is thought to be a cold-hearted recluse. Now faced with leaving his dukedom to the Crown for lack of an heir, he sets out to find a bride in a manner more suited to generations past-through his solicitor. When Lady Beaujolais receives one of the Duke's impersonal proposals, she rejects it out of hand and in considerable anger. Little does she know she is soon to be forced into his company every day...

Five years have passed since Lady Anjou Winslow, one of the triplet daughters of the Marquess Ashbury, watched her love, Lieutenant Gardiner, leave for the war in America. They were secretly married just before his departure, and though the War Office has declared him dead, she refuses to believe it. No trace of him was ever found. Private enquiry agents, hired by Lord Ashbury, have searched to no avail, yet something inside Anjou refuses to believe her husband is dead. Despite her fears of the ocean, she therefore convinces her brother to escort her on the long voyage to America. Captain Edward Harris, the Wind's brusque master, does not want her on his ship. Nevertheless, he consents to her passage after her desperate pleas. As Anjou and Charles search for Lieutenant Gardiner, more comes to light than either expected. Will Edward somehow stand in the way of her lost love's return?