The Lilac Garland

the long version

Too well did she recall their kiss.... At an awkward seventeen, Lady Christina Braughton had been swept off her feet by the darkly dashing Lord Ramsey--only to find that she was the mere butt of a joke. At twenty-three, Tina had blossomed into a violet-eyed beauty who bid the ton a firm farewell. After her own fashion, the young heiress lived in a spacious manse filled with a merry hodgepodge of street urchins, ancient servants, and stray animals. But things went scandalously awry when the trustee of her estate arrived unannounced. For he was none other than that self-same rakehell nobleman who had once made folly of her naive affection. Even as her heart beat faster, Tina vowed she would have none of the man... or would she?