Book excerpt: A debutante, a disgraced lord, and a dead body. A disaster... or the grimmest meet-cute in Regency London? Miss Delilah Bancroft has a problem. A sizable and rather bloody one. Namely, a dead man on the library floor. She’d only wished for a moment of solitude out of the glaring eyes of Society. Instead, she’s caught red-handed (unfortunately, literally) by an attractive stranger. Is he her salvation or ruination? Marcus, Lord Wyndam has inherited a decrepit castle and a tainted title. During his desperate search for evidence to silence whispers of treason against his father, he stumbles across a woman holding a deadly stiletto over a body. Is she murderer or pawn? What he knows for sure is that she is his only link to the truth. With enemies beating down the door, he spirits her from the scene before she is discovered with blood on her hands—and her pretty white debutante dress—to unearth her part in the grisly plot. Delilah proves herself to be a woman of wit and courage as well as beauty, and as the only person who might be able to identify the man behind the plot that ruined his father, Marcus must keep her close. Even if he has to ruin her to do it. Warning: Contains a lady who longs for adventure, a man of honor who longs for respectability, and a head long rush through London’s ballrooms on the hunt for both. Will they live to love another day?