A lady in waiting

Phillipa Carstairs is absolutely lovely—so everyone has said since the hour she entered the world. Any gentleman would thrill to make her his bride, yet Pippa is all alone, waiting for a fiancé who disappeared many months ago. She's long forgotten why she loved him, and she's nearly given up hope.

A man of action

At first glance, Maxwell, Lord Montrose, is nothing but a dandy—albeit a well-chiseled, irresistibly handsome one! But his foppish demeanor hides a keen mind and a steely resolve. A spy for the Crown who knows absolutely everyone, he's the only one who can help Pippa find her missing fiancé.

An irresistible desire

Crossing England on the trail of the elusive husband-to-be, Maxwell and Pippa have the best of intentions. But a simmering attraction builds in close quarters . . . with a sinful passion that will be impossible to deny.

Edith Layton wrote her first novel when she was ten. She bought a marbleized notebook and set out to write a story that would fit between its covers. Now an award-winning author with more than thirty novels and numerous novellas to her credit, her criteria have changed. The story has to fit the reader as well as between the covers.

Graduating from Hunter College in New York City with a degree in creative writing and theater, Edith worked for various media, including a radio station and a major motion picture company. She married and went to suburbia, where she was fruitful and multiplied to the tune of three children. Her eldest, Michael, is a social worker and artist in NYC. Adam is a writer and performer on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." Daughter Susie is a professional writer, comedian, and performer who works in television.

Publishers Weekly called Edith Layton "one of romance's most gifted writers." Layton has enthralled readers and critics with books that capture the spirit of historically distant places and peoples. "What I've found," she says, "is that life was very different in every era, but that love and love of life is always the same."

Amazon.com's top reviewer called Layton's book Alas, My Love (April 2005, Avon Books) "a wonderful historical." For her previous work, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times, and excellent reviews, awards, and commendations from Library Journal, Romance Readers Anonymous, and Romance Writers of America.

Edith Layton lives on Long Island where she devotes time as a volunteer for the North Shore Animal League, the world's largest no-kill pet rescue and adoption organization. Her dog Daisy—adopted herself from a shelter—is just one member of Layton's household menagerie.