Wagering on Christmas

Sometimes love needs a few wagers to stick the second time around. Pleasure is his only pursuit... Colin Rowley, Viscount Hartsford, has been given an offer too good to ignore: if he comes home to Lancaster Hall and his family by Christmas morning, he'll win a coveted racehorse as well as an estate. Trouble is, recollections attached to his ducal father's castle leave him haunted, especially those regarding the first girl he's ever loved, the one who rejected him. Faced with reduced circumstances... Widow Lucy Ashbrook is leaving London for the last time. Now that her husband's savings have dried up, she can no longer afford her lifestyle, so after she attends the Christmas house party at Lancaster Hall—the site of so many delicious memories—she'll return to her parents on the neighboring property. Too bad the man who first won her heart, and who accompanies her on the journey to Derbyshire, hasn't changed his selfish ways. The magic of the holiday season… When a series of mysterious events continually throw Colin and Lucy together, they can't help but revisit the past, and rediscover the joy made during those long-ago winters. Happiness will elude them both unless they find the Yuletide wonder and give themselves over to a love that has waited... with the help of a few, secret Christmas wagers working behind the scenes.