On the night of the Parkhurst ball, someone shared a scandalous, whispered tryst behind the library door. Charlotte Highwood knows one thing for certain: it wasn't her. Unfortunately, the gossip says otherwise, and unless she can unmask the real lovers, she'll be pushed into marriage with Piers Brandon, Lord Granville — the most arrogant, infuriatingly handsome man ever to catch her in a compromising position.
To clear her name, Charlotte reluctantly joins forces with the very man she's trying to avoid marrying. But as their investigation throws them together, the cold, correct marquess proves to be far more than his icy reputation suggests, hiding secrets, wit, and a dangerous past behind his perfect manners. The closer they get to the truth, the harder it becomes for Charlotte to remember why she was so determined not to want him.
The fourth and final book in Tessa Dare's Castles Ever After series is a playful, sharply funny historical romance wrapped around a drawing-room mystery. It pairs a headstrong heroine bent on choosing her own future with a guarded marquess who never meant to fall, for a story about reputation, desire, and the scandals we don't start but can't escape.