After Dark with the Duke

The Grand Palace on the Thames has new guests. Opera singer Mariana Wylde (nicknamed the “Harlot of Haywood Street” by the broadsheets) arrives just before curfew, begging for a room. She never expected an old lover and a new beau to come to blows over her, let alone fight a duel that almost killed both and caused her fall from fame. But Mariana’s arrival is a godsend for the ladies of the Grand Palace, who quickly set about planning an event to restore her reputation and fill their coffers. The other new guest is the respected general James Blackmore, Duke of Valkirk, who sought rooms at the Grand Palace for solitude to work on his memoir. He’s quite contemptuous of Mariana at first, since he saw too many young men die in battle to tolerate their potential deaths over a woman of her ilk. But there’s something about Mariana that makes him feel alive again, and he’s not quite sure how to deal with these feelings.