A fake husband is easy to find. A convincing one? Not so much. The manor has been crumbling for years. The roof leaks. The debts multiply. Something scuttles in the walls that Audrey chooses not to investigate. Lady Audrey Kendal did not expect her inheritance to be a ruin, a mountain of unpaid creditors, and a groundskeeper who watches her from across the grounds like she's something fragile that blew in and won't last the week. She intends to prove him wrong. She intends to prove everyone wrong. Unfortunately, her cousin intends otherwise. A frail widow, he insists, cannot manage an estate alone. He'll be happy to take it off her hands—unless she produces a respectable husband. Quickly. The only man within reach is Kit Harris. Rude. Suspicious. Infuriatingly capable. A man who loathes gentlefolk on principle and keeps secrets the same way the manor keeps drafts—in every corner, behind every wall, and always cold to the touch. Audrey doesn't know why he flinches at magistrates, or why certain rooms stay locked, or what he buries at the edge of the estate when he thinks no one is watching. She only knows she needs a husband who can pass in polite society, and the man she's got would sooner hang than learn to bow. Now she must transform him into a gentleman before the deception destroys them both. Every lesson grates. Every lesson entices. He hates what she's making him. She's starting to need what he already is. And the longer they pretend to be married, the less either of them wants to pretend—and the harder it becomes to tell which is more dangerous: his secrets, or what she's beginning to feel despite them. PS: There might be too much spice. Eat at your own risk. ;) Enemies to Lovers Forced Proximity Marriage of Convenience Reverse Pygmalion Grumpy Hero / Sunny Heroine Class Difference Gothic Manor