The Cornish Lyon

Orphaned heiress Miss Georgiana Frampton is in a pickle.

Not only has she allowed the handsome, young naval officer who'd asked her to marry him untoward liberties—which left her in a delicate condition that will soon be impossible to hide—he's also had the bad luck to drown at sea. Her aunt, disgusted at her behavior, has thrown her out onto the street. When Georgiana's best friend suggests she should go to the Lyon's Den to request help, off she goes. She's happy to bestow her fortune, or maybe some of it, on a man who will give her unborn child a respectable name. Having been taken advantage of before, she never intends to let her heart rule her head again.

Captain Fitzwilliam Carlyon is a lesser scion of a ducal household with no money to his name other than his military pay. When he finds himself with pockets to let and heavily in debt after a night of injudicious gambling at the Lyon's Den, he can hardly believe his luck when Mrs. Dove-Lyon offers him a way out: the rich heiress he's longed for. With no intention of anything other than funding the rakish lifestyle he considers his due, he leaps at the chance to marry Georgiana, despite her looming problem.

But the best laid plans can go wildly astray, and their feelings begin to become engaged, although both of them deny this to themselves—until the night of the ball his sister has arranged for them.