Alara has one night to find the love of her life.

She's as British as bluebells and rain. But now the Continental wars are over, her mother plans a life for Alara in the Ottoman Empire where she'll never see Britain again.

With one night of freedom, Alara's future depends on finding a British husband and forgetting the curious boy she's waited for all her life.

Lord Harman is heir to a political dynasty.

But hates intrigue and compromise. He'd trade it all for one more lazy summer day with the girl who inspired his mind and his heart.

At a wild Christmas revel he meets her again, still challenging him every step of the way and now very much a woman. When a dangerous mission falls into his lap, he must make an absolute choice: spend his last night with her playing pirate - or fulfill his destiny.

***

The Curious Countess is a standalone novella of about 100 pages, but readers of The Clandestine Countess may rejoice to see Lord Harman have a love story of his own.

Previously appeared as "His Unlaced Love" in the Penford Press anthology Lords and Lace.