The Autumn Bride

A resourceful former governess who breaks into an apparently empty London mansion hoping to find something to sell, and ends up rescuing its neglected elderly owner instead.

Lady Beatrice's skeptical nephew, an aristocrat freshly returned from years abroad in the East who suspects the young women caring for his aunt are impostors.

Max's elderly great-aunt, left ill and neglected by her own servants until Abby and her companions nurse her back to health and become her adopted "nieces."

Abigail's younger sister, rescued from a brothel where she was being held, and taken in as one of the four young women who become Lady Beatrice's household.

Max's rakish best friend, a self-described "black sheep" with a running fear of husband-hunting young women he calls "muffins."