title: The Love of a Rake
author: Sande, Linda
description: Everyone has plans ... until something-or someone-comes along to change them. At the age of thirty-five, Randall Roderick, Marquess of Reading, decides it's time to trade in his life as the 'Rake of Reading' for the life of a married man. Trouble is, his reputation precedes him, and he's not particularly attracted to the milk water misses who make up the eligible ladies of the ton. His counterpart, Charles Goodwin, Earl of Wakefield, is only twenty-five and enjoys his life as a rake far too much to consider marriage. A visiting prostitute may change his mind on the matter, though, if only because he wants to do the right thing. When the Earl of Norwick's skittish cousin, Constance, meets Randall in the park, she's intrigued by the gentleman she thinks is merely a well-to-do cit with a fascination for horse racing, but she's only in London to find out what's become of her inheritance. She's determined to return to her home and horses in Sussex to live the life of an independent woman. Her counterpart, Eleanor Merriweather, is in London for her come-out with a dream to marry her perfect knight, but having been duped by a brothel's madame upon her arrival, she suddenly finds herself completely and thoroughly ruined. When the lives of these four are suddenly upended by their chance meetings, the events of two nights and two days will prove that it takes a bit of horse sense to get on the right track in "The Love of a Rake."