Love blossoms for a Lady Gardener when she robs a Duke... and then steals his heart.
Alexandra Grantham becomes Lady Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to provide for the local farm workers in the district. However, not content with merely giving the poverty-stricken tenants money, Alexandra also grows fruit and vegetables for them in the hothouses at Grantham Place, using her expert knowledge of horticultural science to relieve their distress.
When Mr. Robert Chanderly, her new neighbor, arrives in the district, Alexandra holds him up at gunpoint in his coach. She is dismayed when he hints she isn't what she seems. After he disarms her, Alexandra narrowly escapes, racing away to safety. However, she gains courage upon their next meeting when Mr. Chanderly fails to recognize her, even challenging him about the ineptitude of the manager he recently appointed to oversee his estate.
Alexandra wishes to remain at Grantham Place with her brother, Sir John, as he suffers from chronic ill health. But when her grandmother, Lady Longmore, arrives at Grantham Place, she makes it clear that she expects her granddaughter to travel back to London with her.
A hasty departure seems most judicious when men from Bow Street descend on the area to investigate her crimes. And when her new neighbor succeeds in unmasking her, Alexandra agrees to the scheme with alacrity.
After Lady Longmore encounters Mr. Chanderly, she reveals to Alexandra that he is, in fact, the Duke of Stanford. Alexandra cannot hide her horror at the unwelcome revelation as the acknowledged leader of Society has it within his power to ruin her reputation.
But, instead of blighting her social chances when they arrive in London, the duke decides to bring Alexandra into high fashion, and she effectively takes the ton by storm.
Enemies abound in the Capital, however, causing trouble for Alexandra at every turn. So when an old adversary of Stanford's threatens to reveal Alexandra's dangerous secret to the ton, the duke must do everything within his power to defend the honor of the woman he loves - or lose the only lady he's ever wished to make his duchess.
Note: This series is part of Dragonblade's Sweet Dreams line, so this is a sweet, wholesome Historical Romance where passion beyond the bedroom door is left to the reader's imagination.
The Duke and the Lady Gardener was originally published under the title The Dashing Debutante. It has been extensively rewritten and changed.
The Grantham Girls
The Duke and the Lady Gardener
The Baron and the Lady Chemist