The Rake — Karen Lynn

Amid the elegant splendor of aristocratic England in the early nineteenth century, a determined young woman fights to keep her rightful inheritance even as she battles to keep love at bay with an appealing but mysterious man...

When her father is killed in a tragic hunting accident, the beautiful Sharisse Satterleigh assumes responsibility for both herself and her young, precocious sister, Polly - as well as the management of their large ancestral home, the Meadows - while her brother, Sidney serves in the Army in India. Then a shocking letter arrives from the Commissioner at Delhi, informing her that Sidney has been killed. Her new grief, however, is overcome by fear: with no provision made for her and Polly, the Meadows will pass on to the next male heir. Sharisse will lose her home and her fortune in one cruel twist of fate...

Determined to keep this from happening, Sharisse decides to keep her brother's death a secret. She tells everyone that he is wounded and recuperating in a hospital in France, hoping to gain time to solve her dilemma...But suddenly her life - and her heart - are changed, when the dashing, rakish Andrew Lindley arrives from India, with Sidney's personal effects in hand. Immediately smitten with Sharisse - and intrigued with her strange charade - Andrew decides to play along, patiently waiting for Sharisse to reveal her dark secret...

Then Sidney's pregnant wife and overbearing mother-in-law descend on the Meadows, anxious for news of Sidney - and complicating an already much tangled web. And as Sharisse desperately tries to juggle all the pieces, seeking a suitable husband and resisting Lindley's advances, Andrew puts his own plan into action. It is a plan that could, at last, free Sharisse from her lie and win her love - or her hate - forever...