Review: Great story it deserves a second go around.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 15, 2013
This is the first story I have read by Wendy Soliman and I look forward to reading more of her stories.  I couldn't put it down I read it over 2 days. The plot was believable 3 sisters and their companion are in hiding from someone who is hunting them down. They are doing a good job of hiding out until the oldest sister Athena happens upon a man she has never seen before (Eli Shelton, the Duke of Winsdale) lying in the woods unconscious and bleeding from his head. She doesn't want to leave him there to die so she and her companion Millie after much struggle manage to get the man back to their run down cottage.  When the man comes to which by the way he has been alert for sometime but wanted the attentions of the beautiful Athena. He tells Athena and Millie that his name is Franklin and he never mentions that he is a duke. So he stays in her humble cottage for a day and he is concerned why 4 ladies would be living in such a run down cottage alone without a man to look after them. He learns that the cottage is on his property and is very angry that his steward hasn't made repairs to the stairs, the roof, windows and flooring in this cottage and bonus why he would rent it out in the first place. Anyway Athena helps "the duke" with her knowledge of herbal remedies and helps him to heal. He wants to repay her kindness but she won't allow him to do so. However Millie on the other hand wouldn't mind him paying because she is annoyed by the man taking her bed.  Millie knows something's not right with the man but she can't put her finger on it. The duke knows that he can't stay there long because his mother the Dowager Duchess of Winsdale will send out a search party to find her son. The dowager wants her son home to pick one of the 4 ladies she has chosen to become his wife so she damn well wants him home.  Well the duke goes out of his way to help Athena without her knowledge after he leaves her cottage even though he doesn't really know who she is because Athena is incognito as a married woman who husband is off on the continent she is using her real first name but giving a phony last name of Defoe. Eli is so entranced by Athena that he wants to learn all about her even the dark secrets he knows that she is hiding. As I read the story I never got the impression that he would care too much what she was hiding he just wanted to know what she was not telling him. He's falling in love with her everyday and to his knowledge Athena is a married woman, not available and someone he may never build a life with fully. So he offers her the only thing he can think of for her to become his mistress. Since he feels he can't marry her at least he can still have her in his life until her elusive husband returns. He even offers to fully financially care for her, her sisters and their companion. He even wants to take care of and acknowledge any children they may have while together.  He needs an heir for his position and decides since he can't legally marry Athena to his knowledge so he decides to do as his mother wants him to do and keep the woman he truly loves at the same time.  I was wondering during that part of the story would he really be willing to give her up and any children they have together if her husband ever came back for her.  Please note that during these parts of the story Athena's past has not been revealed and I have only suspicions about her life but nothing concrete.