In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince-while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable?but not too amiable. Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit...

When Gervase Frant, Seventh Earl of St Erth, returns at last from Waterloo to his family seat at Stanyon, he enjoys a less than welcome homecoming. Only Theo, a cousin even quieter than himself, is there to greet him - and when he meets his stepmother and young half-brother he detects open disappointment that he survived the wars. But the dangers of the Lincolnshire countryside are quite different to those of the battlefield.

The secrets of an aristocratic dynasty are about to be revealed? The year is 1949 and the Second World War has exacted a terrible price on Britain. The great Yorkshire estate of Cavendon Hall is facing bankruptcy. Its two families, the aristocratic Inghams and their retainers the Swanns, are at odds for the first time in living memory over the course that must be taken to save it. In London, a city still scarred by bombsites, the Earl?s niece, Alicia...