Lorna is a maid in Blackhall Castle, serving for the Duke of Kinross, Alex Russel. Raised as a gentleman’s daughter, with her father’s death came penury, and her desire to support herself and choose her own destiny helped place her in this circumstance. But she has long held a fancy for the Duke, as have most of the women in the surrounding area. A masquerade ball spurs a decision that will change Lorna’s life forever. Alex is a wholly self-absorbed man, dedicated to his own work in fingerprinting, he’s angry and brooding over the lack of recognition granted him. Using his title as a shield to keep people at arm’s length, or providing him with his expected levels of deference, he’s hard to empathize with even as he intrigues with his intelligence. Of course, we know that Lorna will be going to the ball in disguise, against all good sense and the desperate pleadings of her friend Nan. And it goes to reason that Alex will need to get to know her…from there we think we know the story… But we would be wrong: it was so much better than what I could have expected. Ranney develops these characters slowly, and their relationship proceeds at a similar pace. Lorna is wonderfully intelligent and matter-of-fact, she accepts consequences and never overthinks the choices she has made. Her strength combines nicely with her good nature and solid self-esteem to make her a formidable opponent as Alex comes to see. For his part, he’s just a cowardly little boy building walls and using his title to keep others from seeing the true vulnerabilities. With Lorna’s need to embrace every situation and pull those she cares about along with her, he’s got little choice (and few skills) to stay out of her influence. A wonderful story about learning to truly live and take chances, secure in the knowledge that you will always have one person standing by your side. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.