Cecilia — Blair Bancroft

Cecilia Lilly has but on ambition -- to become the mistress of a titled gentleman. But when the Marquess of Longmere becomes her "protector," she learns the truth of the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for." Yet even after suffering a severe beating, she finds it difficult to lower her dreams of grandeur to accepting help from a very different kind of lord, a Lord of London's Underworld. No matter how tempting his offers -- vengeance against the marquess, the opportunity to aid orphans and unwed mothers -- she cannot see past his guttersnipe origins. Cecilia has a considerable amount of growing up to do before her world comes right.

Author's Note: The Aphrodite Academy series depicts the "dark side" of the Regency -- stories that explore what might have happened to young women to whom life has been unkind. Young women with no family or friends willing to help when their lives fall apart. The language of the series is saucy, the sex occasionally graphic, but the stories are driven by plot and character, not by sexual content.