Mayflowers might mean love, but if not, persistence, charm, and a cat will win the day…
Widowed Annette Jennings has become something of an embarrassing problem. Terrified of leaving her home after a horrible murder stole her husband’s life a few years ago, she refuses to have anything to do with society or the Marriage Mart a second time. With her father dying and her mother desperate to see Anne settled, the baroness looks up an old friend who owns a gaming hell. With a promise and the exchange of coin, Mrs. Dove-Lyon consents to find a husband for Anne.
Peregrine (Allan) Barrows--the eighth Duke of Masterson--has lived almost half his life mostly blind, for a fever contracted at the age of twenty ensured that. Due to the hardship, he wasn't able to enter the fight against Napoleon and neither has he had luck finding a wife. Not even the title can attract a lady, for a blind man is useless, right? Needing to do his duty by his title and estates, he turns to the tables at the Lyon's Den. There are rumors the owner has some skill in matchmaking.
After copious amount of coin is sacrificed to the gaming hell's coffers, Peregrine and Annette are quickly wed, despite their protests. Though she moves into the duke's townhouse, she refuses to leave her suite, for fear is not an easy habit to quit. Yet the duke is determined to make their marriage of convenience work. With charm as well as a curious cat, he finds a way to communicate with his wife that opens doors both physically and metaphorically regardless of his own doubts and fears. Only when they both let go can they fall into something beautiful.
...proving once more that Mrs. Dove-Lyon always knows best when it comes to love.