The Lion and Lamb: A Sweet Regency Romance Book 1 of Dowager's Masquerade

He came to the Dowager's masquerade to be left alone. She came expecting not to be noticed at all. Clara Felton has spent her life against the wall - a clergyman's daughter, a paid companion, a woman the world has never thought to look at twice. So when the formidable Dowager Duchess of Langford sends her a lamb's costume with a tiny golden bell and a summons to the most exclusive ball of the Season, Clara is certain there has been a mistake. Gabriel Stratton, Marquess of Ravenscar, came home from the war wrong - armored in silence, called a beast, certain the part of him that could feel had died in the mud of Spain. He means to stand in the shadows and leave untouched. Then a lamb meets the eye of a lion across a crowded ballroom, and neither of them is ever quite the same. One masked night. One determined matchmaker. One last chance for two frightened hearts to be brave. But when an overheard cruelty sends Clara fleeing into the crowd, Gabriel must do the one thing the war taught him never to do - and let himself be seen. A sweet, closed-door Regency romance - all longing, no spice. Book 1 of The Dowager's Masquerade.