Sometimes, the road to romance is littered with intrigue, harrowing danger, and wild shock.
The year is 1819 and Theodosia Netherton—Lady Ballantyne—is wintering in the sunny climes of Italy in an effort to protect her health as well as to visit her brother. Widowed for three years, she has no interest in a new romance, but when a horrific emergency leads her to the doorstep of a handsome Bow Street Runner and former spy with wide shoulders and a mysterious scar, she might just change her mind.
Mr. Hudson Ridley is in Rome for the warmth and relative obscurity. Retired at the age of eight and thirty, the last thing he wants is to become embroiled in a kidnapping plot that involves an attractive widow and her missing son. Yet he was the best in the retrieval business in his prime, and she did have hauntingly unforgettable eyes as well as a smile that could make a man do wicked, stupid things.
In the quest to hunt the people who nabbed the boy and heir to a viscounty, Theodosia and Hudson dance about a mutual attraction until desire gets the better of them one star-lit evening amidst some of Italy’s finest ruins. But tracking the criminals turns deadly when shots are fired and they’re in the middle. Time is running out to rescue the young heir, keep a valuable jewel safe, and somehow figure out if love is the ultimate reward despite the obstacles and the risk.