A Noble Masquerade

by Kristi Ann Hunter · 2015

In Regency England, Lady Miranda Hawthorne is the picture of propriety—yet beneath her polished exterior burns a yearning for freedom. As she enters her fourth season and feels the pressure of looming spinsterhood, Miranda begins to pour her secret hopes and frustrations into letters addressed to a distant duke—her brother’s old school friend—never intending to send them. When her brother’s new valet, Marcus, discovers one of these private missives and inadvertently forwards it, the duke replies with his own heartfelt note, sparking an unexpected courtship conducted entirely by correspondence. Caught between the mysterious duke whose words stir her soul and the charming, increasingly enigmatic Marcus, whose presence awakens a daring rebellion, Miranda must navigate a tangled web of affection, intrigue, and danger. As state secrets threaten to unravel and Marcus finds himself at the heart of a political crisis, Miranda discovers that love is only one of the stakes—her family’s honor, her own identity, and the very future of the Hawthornes hang in the balance.