The Duke

Ian Carmichael, Duke of Portmaine, unexpectedly inherits a Scottish earldom from a distant relation and travels to Penderleigh Castle to claim it, leaving his fiancée Felicity behind in London for the Season. There he meets Brandy Robertson, the late earl's granddaughter, and finds a household of disowned heirs and a dowager countess who has not accepted a stranger inheriting her family's seat — and someone who wants the new earl dead. First published in 1981 as "The Generous Earl" and later revised and reissued as "The Duke."