Lady Fortescue and Colonel Sandhurst hatch a plan: What if they were to transform her decrepit home into a posh hotel, offering their guests the pleasure of being waited upon by nobility? With the help of other down-and-out aristocrats, they do just that, and the Poor Relation is born.

When unfortunate circumstances leave Rosalyn Bernay penniless in 1880s London, she takes a job backstage at a theater and finds herself dreaming of a career in the spotlight. Injured soldier Nate Moran is also working behind the scenes, but he can't wait to return to his regiment in India until he meets Rosalyn.

The oddly assorted group met some time ago and started The Poor Relation hotel. The hotel must go on. And so poor, faded Miss Tonks has been persuaded to steal something valuable enough from her rich sister to set the poor relations on their feet.

"With devastating scars in her past, Serena Winthrop is sure no man can be trusted--especially not a man like the too-smooth Viscount Carmichael. His reputation as a flirt and a gambler is everything she despises. And the young artist makes sure that this disreputable heir to an earldom knows of her deep disapproval whenever they encounter one another. Henry, Lord Carmichael, is perfectly aware of his charms. He's gambled with plenty of ladies' hearts...

Grayson Blake always has a purpose--and never a moment to lose. He's come home to Honey Ridge to convert a historic gristmill into a restaurant, but his plans crumble like Tennessee clay when the excavation of a skeleton unearths a Civil War mystery and leads him back to a beautiful and familiar stranger. Once a ballet dancer, now co-owner of the Peach Orchard Inn, Valery Carter harbors pain as deep as the secrets buried beneath the mill. But spending...