One Night with the Laird

Reputation is everything in this Regency-era Scottish romance, which travels from the fashionable salons of Edinburgh all the way to the Highlands. Widowed Lady Mairi MacLeod is the toast of the town, deftly flirting with everyone while avoiding scandal. While she is usually faithful to her dead husband, Mairi succumbs to loneliness one night and goes home with a masked stranger. The passionate interlude ends when she discovers that her lover is Jack Rutherford, the one man she didn’t want in her bed. Jack is not above blackmailing Mairi to continue their affair. He doesn’t want to be anyone’s champion, but when various evildoers target Mairi for her lands and money, he surprises everyone by coming to the rescue. The mystery takes a backseat to the tempestuous affair, and the parade of people tromping through Mairi’s life is difficult to keep track of, but Jack and Mairi’s repartee keeps this romance moving along as love blossoms and secrets are revealed one by one. (Nov.)