Sons of Somerset

It's only a little ruse... Rebecca Turner traveled to Bath on the faint hope of finding a cure for her ailing mother-but with very little money to pay for it. Dr. Jared Cooper was unsure he could ever love again until he laid eyes on Rebecca's cousin-the incomparable Miss Alicia. He's smitten, but she's in mourning and thus unavailable for a time. Fortunately, her cousin Rebecca can help. Finding themselves each in need of something that the other person can procure, Rebecca and Jared strike a bargain: he agrees to tend to her ailing mother at no charge on the condition that Rebecca discreetly passes his letters to her mourning cousin. She can ill afford to lose Dr. Cooper's help, so when Alicia refuses to write back to the doctor, Rebecca takes matters into her own hands. But what can Rebecca do when she finds herself falling in love with the man behind the letters, and he doesn't know it's her?

He waylays her carriage and runs off with her property. Can she keep him from stealing her heart as well? By day, Reginald Sinclair works in the post office, but by night, he is the increasingly infamous Paladin, the gallant highwayman making young women swoon all over Somerset. With a vendetta against the wealthy that spans both past and present, Reggie's escapades allow him to take justice into his own hands while helping his uncle avoid insolvency. Joanna Carmichael's father has finally chosen her a husband. While she is not thrilled with her father's selection, Joanna understands it as a business arrangement, something which suits her practicality perfectly. Her father hopes her good sense will exercise a beneficial effect upon her younger sister, Frances, who is regrettably prone to romantics. Frances's preoccupation with reports of the Paladin threaten to overshadow Joanna's coolheaded example, but Joanna is determined to show her sister how foolish and unworthy of admiration the outlaw is. During their encounter, though, the maddening highwayman takes an item of Joanna's-then has the audacity to send her a letter with instructions on how to recover it, beginning a battle of wills that brings Reggie within reach of the people responsible for his family's ruin and forces Joanna to reconsider the desirability of her business arrangement.