The Balloonist's Wager

Flying is wonderful, but romance is sublime if it’s with the right person.

Fearless and impulsive, Lady Anne Eliza Lewis, daughter of the Earl of Doverton, is not the usual ton lady. Nor does she want to be, for she's worked the bulk of her adult life at being a balloonist. At eight and twenty she wants to make her stamp as an inventor, and more importantly, show the beau monde she's not a laughingstock for wanting to fly. What is romance compared to that ultimate freedom?

Well-read Benedict Giles Urquhart, Viscount Worthington is a man who values peace and order over all else in his life. After attaining the rank of captain in the military, he refuses to use it, for he was naught but a coward on the field. What he wants now is a surcease from guilt and a way to gather the courage he lacked years ago; horrid eyesight be damned. None of that can be found by marrying and furthering his line.

When a freak accident with a crashing hot-air balloon spooks his horse and throws Benedict, his placid life takes an abrupt turn, to say nothing of the distracting and unrepentant woman manning it. Not only is Anne ecstatic about the new distance she's covered, but she also gives the handsome, incensed viscount a field promotion to her unlikely assistant. Despite their obvious differences, they become allies when a wager is thrown down that will challenge both Anne and her balloon. If they’re fortunate, the prize won at the end will be exactly what they both needed all along.