The Marquess and the Runaway Bride
Book 4 of The Ladies of Thornwick SquareLady Helena Marchmont was raised to be beautiful, obedient, and useful.
On the morning of her wedding, dressed in ivory satin and surrounded by flowers bought with borrowed money, Helena overhears the truth: her marriage to Lord Peter Ashford is not a romance, nor even a respectable alliance, but a transaction designed to rescue her family from ruin and place her fortune, her freedom, and her future into the hands of a man who expects obedience.
So Helena runs.
Terrified, scandalised, and still wearing her bridal gown beneath her cloak, she flees to Thornwick House — the one place in London known for sheltering women society would rather silence. But escape is only the beginning. Lord Peter wants his bride returned. Her family wants the scandal buried. Society wants a simpler story: a nervous girl, badly influenced, who must be managed back into compliance.
Then Julian Ashford, Marquess of Ellesmere, arrives at Thornwick’s door.
As Lord Peter’s cousin, Julian should be Helena’s enemy. Instead, he is the first man connected to the Ashford name who does not demand her obedience. Severe, watchful, and carrying a wounded reputation of his own, Julian offers not rescue, but belief — and the dangerous possibility of choice.
While Lady Augusta’s old secrets uncover the story of another bride once saved from ruin, Helena must decide whether she can speak publicly against the future chosen for her. And Julian must choose between family loyalty, social consequence, and the woman brave enough to refuse being sacrificed in the name of respectability.
Atmospheric, romantic, and rich with Regency Gothic mystery, The Marquess and the Runaway Bride is the fourth book in The Ladies of Thornwick Square, a series of hidden histories, dangerous inheritances, wounded hearts, and women brave enough to open the doors society tried to keep locked.
