The Grumpy Duke's Sunshine Companion

Regency London runs on gossip and candlelight. In its brightest ballrooms, the Duke of Ashford is known for something else entirely silence, distance, a temper that keeps most of the Ton well away. For years he’s kept strict control over every detail of his life. Then a brewing scandal drags him back into society just as his younger sister Lydia prepares for her debut.

He needs help. Quickly.

So Ashford hires Miss Eliza Thorne to guide Lydia through the Season. Eliza is clever, warm, and entirely unimpressed by titles. She laughs too loudly in quiet drawing rooms. Speaks her mind without apology. And she refuses to tiptoe around a duke with a foul mood.

Ashford finds her exhausting. Bright as a summer morning. Impossible to ignore.

Their disagreements start small. A sharp comment across a tea table. A look held a little too long beneath crystal chandeliers. Soon the arguments come quicker, edged with something neither of them names. The air between them shifts quiet glances, quickened breath, the rustle of silk in a crowded ballroom.

Then one evening in a moonlit garden, everything changes. Someone sees them alone together.

The whispers begin at once. Lydia’s prospects tremble. The Ashford name wavers. Eliza’s future hangs by a thread.

There is only one solution that will silence the Ton.

Marriage.

Suddenly husband and wife, they retreat to Ashford’s sprawling country estate where long dinners, quiet hallways, and the steady crackle of the hearth leave them no space to avoid one another. Days pass in careful conversation. Nights stretch longer than either expected. And the distance Ashford once kept so easily starts to slip.

Still, London never forgets a scandal. The whispers follow. Old secrets stir.

And the duke who mastered control must face a far more difficult question.

What happens when the one woman who unsettles him becomes impossible to lose?

***

Discover the charm, scandal, and irresistible chemistry of the Grumpy Lords, Sunshine Hearts series.

Candlelight glows across London’s Regency ballrooms, where reputation matters as much as wealth. The most formidable lords of the Ton pride themselves on discipline, order, and impeccable manners. Their lives run exactly as planned until certain women arrive.

Women who laugh too loudly. Women who challenge rules instead of following them. Women completely unimpressed by rank or title.

What begins as irritation soon grows into curiosity, then something harder to dismiss. Suddenly the men known for control find their carefully managed worlds shifting.

In this sparkling historical rom-com series, bright-spirited heroines prove one thing: even the sternest lord can be undone.