Jo Ann Ferguson

Ellen Dunbar (who first appeared in The Smithfield Bargain) visits Wolfe Abbey, the home of Corey Wolfe, Marquess Wulfric (who first appeared in The Wolfe Wager), to watch a fireworks show. She finds Lord Wulfric fun and enjoys the fireworks until something goes terribly wrong. Fireworks explode, knocking her from her feet and fatally wounding the marquess. She is shattered at his death, but her despair becomes astonishment when, that...

Was her mother really a spy? Michelle D'Orage refuses to believe that when a Russian diplomat named Alexei Vatutin comes to the Swiss boarding school where she teaches. Her mother fled France and the Terror when Michelle was only a baby, and Michelle never thought about where the money came for them to survive. Nor did her mother tell her about their past or the ring with the lightning bolt on it that she claims was her wedding ring.

...

Heiress Lady Vanessa Wolfe is the talk of the season because everyone is curious whom she will wed. Her brother Corey, the true heir to Wolfe Abbey, has been reported missing after a battle against Napoleon on the continent, and he may be dead. But Vanessa doesn't want to marry; she wants to find Corey.

Her reluctance offers the perfect opportunity for Ross Brickendon, a viscount, to make a bet with his two bored friends, Sir Wilbur Haskett...

When Dominic St. Clair, a French privateer, captures an American ship, he has the American officers transferred to his ship, offering them the respect of one officer for another. He even asks if they need to bring anything from their ship with them. The American captain says no, but then Dominic discovers Abigail Fitzgerald, the captain's daughter, has been left behind on the ship he now is overseeing.

Abigail barely knows her father,...

Golden dreams in California never came true for Lizzie Buchanan and her family. After her sister and brother-in-law died trying to find gold, Lizzie is left with her two young nephews. She vows to take them home to Kentucky where they can live far away from the greed in the gold fields. To fulfill her vow, she needs help. The only one she can turn to is the man who shattered her heart on her way west. Cliff Hollister likes working hard and playing...

Arielle Gardiner is desperate to find her fiancé, Caleb, who has disappeared in Nicaragua, where men rushing to get their share of California gold cross the isthmus. She asks Stephen Lightenfield, a captain who sails there from Boston, for passage. When he refuses, because he believes the jungle is no place for a lady, she sneaks aboard his ship. He is furious, but fascinated by a woman who would leave everything behind to look for the man she loves....

Determined to escape her horrible life in Ohio, Samantha Perry agrees to marry a man looking for a mail-order bride to join him in the Yukon where he is panning for gold. But she quickly learns, upon her arrival in the far north, Joel Houseman is not the man she expected him to be. Joel hides his secrets, and his reasons for wanting her to become his bride seem to have nothing to do with love. The fierce weather, the harsh conditions, and lies urge...

Something is rotten in the Lake District . . . and the Prince Regent has asked Lord Neville Hathaway to investigate. But in order to ensure success, he asks his wife--and intrepid partner in crime-solving--Lady Priscilla, to join him. When they learn that a young woman of the Beau Monde has vanished in the area, they can't help wondering if that disappearance is connected to tales of a strange new settlement being created by a half-mad lord. Drawn...

A train accident along the Ohio River propels Jasmine O'Neal into Spencer Galloway's life. His house is closest to the river, so, because she is hurt, she is brought there. Spencer outwardly appears to live a boring life on a small farm, working as the local schoolteacher. He is raising three children that aren't his own, and he leads a double life as a conductor along the Underground Railroad. The last thing he needs is Jasmine living under his roof...

Marcus Aurelius Octavius Whyte, Marquess of Daniston and heir to the Duke of Attleby, wakes in his mistress's bed to realize this is the day he meets his wife. That wife is coming from distant North Africa, where her father is a diplomat for the British government. Regina is no happier about the match than Marcus is, but it was arranged by his grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, and her father. Marcus doesn't want a wife, and Regina has no idea how...