The Trouble with a Dare

A Desperate Young Lady... Miss Grace Weston is in trouble. In fact, Miss Weston is in about the worst trouble a young unmarried lady can get herself into. No amount of regret will change the fact that she was nitwit enough to be seduced by a handsome face and a lot of romantic nonsense. No amount of weeping will change the fact that she will have a child out of wedlock. She will break her parents' hearts and taint the whole family with her shame. Her folly will forever exclude her from the society to which she belongs... Unless something extraordinary happens. A Quiet Man... Mr Sterling Oak is a man of few words. Raised by his ambitious father to be a gentleman, he treads a line between his family's lowly past and the society that scorns him. An educated farmer with a fine house and dirt beneath his nails, he hides behind silence rather than reveal the man he really is. When Sterling's keen eye detects that which no one else has yet noticed, something moves him to make the delicately lovely Miss Weston an offer of marriage. A Devil's Bargain... Grace does not know what to make of Mr Oak. He appears little more than a big, mannerless brute with a scowl, a man who would rather grunt a reply than endure a conversation. Yet what choice has she? Her husband-to-be is fierce and intimidating, but Grace is desperate, and not as fragile as her fair beauty may suggest. Accepting the devil's bargain is probably the second-worst mistake of her life... Unless it turns out to be the beginning of something wonderful.