The Carradine Affair — Paula Allardyce

Original title: The Gentle Sex.

Beautiful and headstrong Mary Ann had always lived in a sheltered world -- until the day her pretty maid's romantic indiscretion forced Mary Ann to confront the worldly and licentious Edward Carradine. Out of this explosive meeting came the most unlikely love ever to scandalize London. But one woman determined that this unusual couple would never reach the altar. Edward's exquisite low-born mistress, Sophy Devereux, was both dangerously seductive and dangerously connected -- and she was not above using her unsavory friends from the Pleasure Gardens to achieve her ends!