The wild baron

Rohan Carrington, Baron Mountvale, comes from a family known for charm and philandering, and he has earned the same reputation as a womanizer. A letter arrives claiming that his late younger brother, George, ruined a young lady. Rohan cannot believe it: George was a serious scholar, a prude with a reputation for dullness.

Then the young lady herself, Susannah, appears. She insists she was never ruined, and she says she is a Carington. Her circumstances are poor: she has a three-year-old daughter, very little money, a younger brother and a wastrel father.

Susannah and her daughter are also in danger. Rohan and Susannah join forces, and the trail leads them toward a legendary treasure tied to MacBeth, the eleventh-century king of Scotland. It is a legacy of ancient good and evil.

Along the way there are cats to be trained for racing, limericks sung to horses, a murder to solve and a vicar with a great many secrets. The comic, adventurous tone carries a romantic thread, and Rohan and Susannah are linked by old magic. This is the first book in the Baron series.