A Christmas Bride (Regency Romance, Signet)
Wealthy businessman Edgar Downes comes to London seeking a  young, well-born wife, having promised his aging father a daughter-in-law by Christmas Day. Instead of the youthful miss he seeks, Edgar  finds himself under the spell of Lady Helena Stapleton, a beautiful and  sensuous widow his own age with whom he shares an irresistible night of  passion. Their liaison surprises the straight-laced Edgar but wounds  Helena to the core. Fearing she can only bring destruction to those she  loves, she has lived her life on the edge of respectability, deftly  avoiding any entanglements. Now that Edgar has breached her protective  battlements, she must face her growing love for him. When, to their  mutual surprise, Helena discovers she is pregnant, Edgar takes her as  his Christmas bride over her protestations of disinterest and  unworthiness. They retire to Edgar's country house for a family  Christmas, and Helena is thrust among kind, loving people. Despite her  best efforts, she finds herself warming to them and to the man who has  become her husband--a man determined to find the reason for his bride's  pain and bring about the healing necessary for her to accept his love.