At the Duke's Discretion (Ducal Encounters #1)

This edition updated January 2015
When Cristobel Brooke’s father, jeweller to the rich and famous, is brutally murdered, Crista flees to her uncle’s small village close to Winchester, determined not to be pulled into the criminal activities that ended her father’s life. But the villains discover she makes jewellery just as well as her father did and pursue her, forcing her to fall in with their plans.
Lord Amos Sheridan, brother to the Duke of Winchester, is intrigued by Crista but becomes frustrated when she refuses to trust him with her secrets. Astounded when she becomes implicated in treasonous acts, Amos is determined to vindicate her. With the duke’s backing, Amos and Crista launch a daring scheme to expose villains prepared to resort to murder and blackmail in order to line their own pockets.
Crista finds herself falling a little more in love with Amos each time she meets him. But he’s a duke’s heir and she’s a nobody with a criminal past that would visit disgrace upon his entire family, so there can be no future for them, can there…