About This Book
Francis Hampton, Duke of Abbeywell, rarely has cause to smile. Family responsibilities not only rule his life, they have also driven away the earl's daughter he was to wed. When an unknown young woman suddenly turns up at his estate in Berkshire, he is suspicious and determines to investigate her origins. Charlotte Fielding is everything he is not, happy-go-lucky, cheerful in adversity, ever ready to see the good in all, and poor. Her arrival coincides with the start of six weeks of severe winter weather, confining most of the population to home, including the occupants of Abbeywell Park-where Charlotte's skill at entertaining children proves a godsend to the Duke's widowed sister, with her lively brood of three. Charlotte's impulsive and unpredictable behaviour irritates and at times angers the conventional Duke, but there is something about this young woman that gets under his skin, especially when that ready smile comes to her face and those dimples crease her rosy cheeks. When he acts to improve her family's situation, he finds his efforts rebuffed, for she is determined to establish herself as a children's writer and make her own way.Meanwhile the Duke's autocratic mother, a Patroness of Almack's, is determined to send her packing. Soon the thaw will come. What then?
