historical romance — explicit, open door. `regency romance` returns · Culverton

Ruined by Michaelmas

The house was hers until the law read her father's will. Now it belongs to a cousin she has never met — and neither of them can leave before Michaelmas.

Six weeks after her father's death, Miss Sophia Falconbridge is still at Marchhurst, keeping the accounts of an estate that is no longer hers. Mr Edmund Falconbridge comes to take possession and sell it quickly; he has a dead brother's debts to pay and no use for a flooded meadow, a widow's unwritten promise, or a soft-handed girl who knows every arrear and boundary on the place.

So they work. Daily, privately, over ledgers and maps, chaperoned by a great-aunt too deaf to hear a word and watched by every servant in the house. A gloved hand on the same page. Half an hour of correct conversation after something has happened that neither will name.

When he offers to settle an income on her, she refuses it — and that night it is she who turns the key in the library door.

By morning the story is in the village. Ruin does not undo itself, and she will not be the consequence a man cleans up.

Explicit, open-door Regency romance. Perfect for readers of Cecilia Grant and Lisa Kleypas.

Publication: September 2026
Pages: ≈ 186