Lord of Darkness

The night Victoria Conrad runs away doesn't turn out at all like she planned. After being accosted by two ruffians, she is rescued by the Earl of Carlisle's coachmen and taken to his country house--only to discover she is his prisoner! The doors aren't locked but the winter is severe, and she is prevented from walking to freedom by the snow.

Horribly scarred from painful injuries, Alastair Saville returned from the war a broken and lonely man, the last heir to an earldom he doesn't want. The previous earl and his son, Alastair's uncle and cousin, perished aboard a ship lost in the channel, but it is the wrongful death of Alastair's beloved sister that sets his misery afire and makes him seethe for revenge. Alastair kidnaps Victoria to prevent her marriage to Ellison Montgomery, heir to the Montgomery barony, whom he blames for his sister's death. Alastair intends to bring the man to ruin through poverty and scandal, but once he has Victoria as his unwilling guest she ceases to serve as an anonymous tool in his quest for vengeance. She is vivacious, outspoken and alluring, and she brings light into Alastair's shattered existence.  

But Alastair is a dying man, and has only these last few days to enjoy her company as he dreams about life as a man whole, and what might have been.