STRANGERS FROM DIFFERENT WORLDS, THEY WOULD SHARE A DESTINY THEY COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED.... Her father's ill-fated ventures land Dulcie Dawn Blessing in London's notorious debtor's prison. In a desperate scheme to win her freedom, she consents to marry a stranger ... for a day. Down on his Luck but ever a gentleman, Crispin West agrees to oblige a lady in need, even if it means playing the groom in a mock wedding. But flustered by the unexpected loveliness of his bride, Crispin signs the marriage certificate with his true name, Viscount West of Darnley Hall. Then Crispin's fortunes are miraculously recovered, allowing him to proceed with his plan to marry Society's darling, Lady Charlotte Barrington. But the very night he is to ask for her hand, Dulcie appears at his doorstep. Their marriage certificate, legally binding with Crispin's signature, has disappeared and may have already fallen into the hands of rogues intent on mischief—or worse. Now Dulcie and Crispin must race against time to retrieve the document ... while an unbidden passion threatens to irrevocably alter their future....
Author
Edith Layton wrote her first novel when she was ten. She bought a marbleized notebook and set out to write a story that would fit between its covers. Now, an award-winning author with more than thirty novels and numerous novellas to her credit, her criteria have changed. The story has to fit the reader as well as between the covers. Graduating from Hunter College in New York City with a degree in creative writing and theater, Edith worked for various media, including a radio station and a major motion picture company. She married and went to suburbia, where she was fruitful and multiplied to the tune of three children. Her eldest, Michael, is a social worker and artist in NYC. Adam is a writer and performer on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Daughter Susie is a professional writer, comedian and performer who works in television. Publishers Weekly called Edith Layton "one of romance's most gifted writers." Layton has enthralled readers and critics with books that capture the spirit of historically distant places and peoples. "What I've found," she says, "is that life was very different in every era, but that love and love of life is always the same." Layton won an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement award for the Historical genre in 2003 and a Reviewers' Choice award for her book The Conquest in 2001. Amazon.com's top reviewer called Layton's Alas, My Love (April 2005, Avon Books), "a wonderful historical." And her recent release, Bride Enchanted, is a Romantic Times 2007 Reviewers' Choice Award Nominee. Edith Layton lived on Long Island where she devoted time as a volunteer for the North Shore Animal League, the world's largest no-kill pet rescue and adoption organization. Her dog Daisy—adopted herself from a shelter—is just one member of Layton's household menagerie. Edith Layton passed away on June 1, 2009 from ovarian cancer.
