The Baron's Dangerous Contract (The Duke's Pact)

An audacious lady and an adventurous lord.Miss Penny Darlington, daughter of the famed horseman Lord Mendbridge, has spent the past two seasons happily flirting with Lord Cabot. On the night of the Tudor ball, all of her ideas are crushed. The lord showed her, in no uncertain terms, how inconsequential she really was. She would prefer to nurse her bruised feelings in private, but her father has invited Lord Cabot to stay with them at Newmarket for the races. Penny vows she will never afford the lord another opportunity to sting her.Lord Cabot well knows he allowed his temper to get the better of him. Miss Darlington left the Tudor Ball in near tears, he was shunned by all who overheard him, and even the hostess glowered at him. He'd not meant what he said and has every expectation that Miss Darlington will laugh it off when she discovers him staying at her house in Newmarket. In any case, he has a far more urgent problem to solve-he's entered his filly in the thousand guinea stakes and does not actually have the stake.As Penny and Lord Cabot circle each other warily and various persons work to keep them apart, a shady moneylender enacts a villainous plot. The lord's world is about to shatter and only Penny can save him from ruin.On the other hand, she might just allow him to hang himself in a noose of his own making.