Summary

After a tragic loss, Celia Delacourt faces the daunting prospect of a lonely life as a governess...or worse. Then her distant cousin, the Duchess of Delacourt, arrives on her doorstep, inviting her to spend Christmas on the family estate. Celia suspects that the reserved noblewoman has an ulterior motive up her expensive sleeve, but nonetheless decides that spending the holidays in a palace will surely surpass spending them in the poorhouse....

Jack Delacourt knows his mother is plotting something when he receives a strange-sounding Christmas invitation that he recognizes as a thinly veiled matchmaking ploy. But if his mother plans to bully him into betrothal with a stranger, Jack is equally prepared with a plan of his own. He meets his cousin Celia with every intention of putting her off. But Celia is not at all what he expected—and they may be about to share the most wonderful Christmas gift of all....