Fair Fortune — Rebecca Ward

IF HIS HEART BELONGED TO ANOTHER, WHY DID HE KISS HER WITH SUCH LONGING?

With her mother's failing health and their rather reduced circumstances, Margaret Hannay had little choice but to grin and bear her position as a paid companion to the very dour and very difficult Lady Vere.

Though gently born and bred, Margaret had none of the uppishness of her class: she made friends of neighbors and servants. Which is how she decided that the new groom at the next estate was almost surely a gentleman. But what dire circumstances had forced him to such labor?

As the groom's tale unfolded, Margaret's yearning for his ardent kiss grew. Alas, she soon recognized an unlikely rival--a diamond of the first water whose interest belied the groom's modest disguise....