False Impressions

She might be "on the shelf" but she wasn't desperate.At twenty and nine, Theodora Thornfield needed to be independent. Despite her upper-class back-ground, she accepted a position as paid companion to her cousin, Lady Bracken, in London.Dora didn't expect to attract suitors. But Mr. Lawrence Carruthers, a wealthy landowner, did not hesitate to bespeak his interest. Dora was flattered until she learned from a "secret source" that Mr. Carruthers meant to make her his next mistress. She resolved to cut him from her acquaintance.What she couldn't know was the mischief afoot that would ruin her reputation. Or that the only one who could prevent it was her tarnished hero, Lawrence Carruthers.