Lost in a woodland daydream, cherubic eighteen-year-old Anita Lavenham is awoken from a reverie inspired by a sermon about the Devil by thesonorous voice of a handsome gentleman asking her to open the gateshe?s leaning on ? a gentleman whose imperious, yet raffish air leadsher to think that he is Lucifer personified!
Anita and her twosisters are impoverished after the loss of their father and theirMama?s illness ? and soon she is obliged to go to live in Harrogatewith her severe Great-Aunt Matilda, who, to Anita?s chagrin, isdetermined to marry her off as soon as possible to the ageing andboorish local Parson.
It seems she is fated to a life ofmisery until, by chance, she meets the Dowager Duchess of Ollerton atthe Harrogate Pump Room where, to her amazement she realises that theDuchess?s son is none other than her very own handsome fallenangel!
Blessed by the kindness of the Duchess, who rescuesAnita from the prospect of a loveless marriage and enlists her in thesearch for a bride for her discerning and disinterested son, Anitafinds joy in her magnificent new surroundings and exalted company butstill, surely, it is too much for her to hope that she herself mightfind a true love of her own?
Lost in a woodland daydream, cherubic eighteen-year-old Anita Lavenham is awoken from a reverie inspired by a sermon about the Devil by thesonorous voice of a handsome gentleman asking her to open the gateshe?s leaning on ? a gentleman whose imperious, yet raffish air leadsher to think that he is Lucifer personified!
Anita and her twosisters are impoverished after the loss of their father and theirMama?s illness ? and soon she is obliged to go to live in Harrogatewith her severe Great-Aunt Matilda, who, to Anita?s chagrin, isdetermined to marry her off as soon as possible to the ageing andboorish local Parson.
It seems she is fated to a life ofmisery until, by chance, she meets the Dowager Duchess of Ollerton atthe Harrogate Pump Room where, to her amazement she realises that theDuchess?s son is none other than her very own handsome fallenangel!
Blessed by the kindness of the Duchess, who rescuesAnita from the prospect of a loveless marriage and enlists her in thesearch for a bride for her discerning and disinterested son, Anitafinds joy in her magnificent new surroundings and exalted company butstill, surely, it is too much for her to hope that she herself mightfind a true love of her own?
