The Duke Decides

by Misty Urban

The Duke of Barkham the last man a woman should trust.
He's the only man who can save everything she holds dear.

Lady Eloisa Grenay died, and Louisa Bickford rose from her ashes to become the matron of an institution devoted to the protection of women and orphans. Her reputation is revered, her influence absolute - as long as no one knows the truth about her.

Gabriel Declan, the new Duke of Barkham, might be devotedly loyal to his friends, but he's notoriously untrustworthy for anyone else. Too busy keeping his own demons at bay, he's the last man to play knight in shining armor for anyone - much less a virtuous woman who finds the charitable work she'd devoted her life to under threat from an unknown attacker.

A summons from the man who knows her secret leads Louisa to the masquerade. But she can't be sure if the stranger who lures her into his arms is the one man who can stop the threat to expose her - or if he's her blackmailer in the devlish flesh.

All Louisa knows for this wayward duke holds the power to destroy everything she's worked to protect ... including her heart.

Secret identities, unrepentant rakes, and imperiled orphans collide in 1830 London in this tale of gripping emotion and steamy desire that will have you turning pages long into the night.

161 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 18, 2026

About the author

Misty Urban is a fiction writer, medieval scholar, freelance editor, and college teacher. She holds a Ph.D. in Old and Middle English and an MFA in fiction from Cornell University and lives in a small town along a big river in eastern Iowa.