Lizzie's Earl

Book excerpt: Lizzie Sommers is newly widowed, with an estate and a comfortable income. But she's off to London to find a gentleman who will give her the family she so desperately craves. She knows just the kind of man she wants--gentle, studious, preferring the quiet of country life and horses to the hubbub of town. Lord Rupert Willoughby is a second son, the spare to his brother, the Earl of Staker, and a rakehell to the ton's bored wives and widows. However, after five daughters, the Countess of Staker is done trying to bear an heir. It is now up to Rupert to produce the next Earl. To do so, he must marry, a prospect he loathes. Rupert plans to find a biddable lady he can wed, bed, and leave in the country, while he carries on with his carefree life in London. But then he meets Lizzie. She sets Rupert's body alight, but worse than that, she inspires goodness in him, makes him yearn for the heart and hearth his friends have attained. Will Lizzie steal the rogue's heart, so the next Earl is conceived in love? Or will Rupert's stubbornness drive her to find another man?