The Independent Heiress

Miss Lydia Meadows is an unconventional young woman, and rather proud of it. As the sole heir to her father's business empire, she is more than a little reluctant to marry, especially when the law decrees that any husband would take ownership of everything she has. Her intellect, coupled with her height, means she often finds herself looking down on the bachelors she meets both figuratively and quite literally. Marriage, then, is not something she wants, but is not something that is likely, anyway.

An accident on the Boxing Day hunt, organized by the Earl of Ravenscar, sends Lord William Standish, the jovial, useless heir to the Ravenscar estates, crashing into her life. As fate keeps throwing them together, Lydia's heart keeps betraying her good sense, and whispering about a future with the good-natured and amusing Lord Standish, even if he's about as much as use to the family business as a paper umbrella.

William, heir to the Ravenscar estates, is running out of ways to avoid marriage. His parents have threatened to cut him off if he doesn't propose to some suitable girl before Easter, but their notion of suitable and his could not be further apart. His unlikely alliance with Lydia Meadows at least provides some relief from his parents and their meddling ways, but the statuesque girl is intelligent, unconventional, and wholly set against marriage. He has finally come across a woman who could not care less about his future Earldom - only William is uncomfortably aware that where he is happy-go-lucky, she is serious, and where his knowledge lies in the arts and fashion, hers lie in accounts and shipping manifests.

As Lydia and William get to know each other better, the same question secretly plagues them both. Is it possible for two people, so completely opposite in nature, find a way to love?


Genre: Historical Romance