Alice M. Roelke

Laurie never meant to fall in love again, certainly not with a humble female painter.

Jenny is too busy helping her brother survive to even contemplate romance. Love isn’t for someone like her. Or is it?

When Laurie does a good deed for a sickly portrait painter, he meets Jenny, the man’s talented sister, who secretly helps her brother complete his commissions. Laurie finds himself unexpected tumbling into their affairs–and falling in love.

Laurence Joysey, known as Laurie, is a wealthy gentleman in the Regency era in London. Though prone to silliness, he has a kind heart and enjoys helping people. One cold winter day, he meets Henry Wilkenson, a sickly painter who once went to his same school, and drives him home.

There, Laurie meets Henry’s sister, Jenny.

And he keeps finding excuses to visit them. Since his first disastrous calf-love, Laurie has never lost his heart to anyone. But now he finds himself in great danger of losing it to a sweet, unassuming young woman with paint-stained clothes and hair that refuses to be tamed.

Jenny enjoys Laurie’s whimsical friendship but knows never to expect anything more. She and her brother struggle under their father’s gambling debts, though they may never manage to repay the whole. Naturally she knows she’s far beneath Laurie socially. But his smile fills her heart, and she finds she has to keep reminding herself there can never be anything more between them. Or can there?

sweet / traditional Regency romance