This is one of my favorite novels in Beverley's Company of Rogues. I love that the hero and heroine seem so real that I want to know more about what happened to them. Their back stories are interesting and make their characters and actions understandable. I had read this before but when I picked it up lately I just had to read it again and it was hard to put down. ( )

From BackCover:
HE HAD NO INTEREST IN LOVE
Leander Knollis, Earl of Charrington, was tired of gadding about the Continent on diplomatic missions. It was time he settled down in his family home with a wife at his side and enjoyed a proper English Christmas. But his search for an intelligent woman without fanciful notions of romance was a frustrating one indeed...until he met the very sensible Judith Rossiter. Her figure was most attractive, her manner most pleasing, and her heart kind and gentle. All he wanted was a marriage of convenience, but soon he began to wonder whether his eminently practical mind would be overruled by his surprisingly foolish heart.
LOVE WAS ALL SHE COULD OFFER
It was an odd sort of marriage proposal which left Judith perplexed. Why would an earl, and a most attractive one at that, have any interest in marrying an impoverished widow with two children? It was a peculiar notion to consider but the opportunity to better her family's fortune, particularly in the advent of the approaching holiday season prompted her to accept his offer. It seemed an ideal arrangement in which she had nothing to fear...unless it was losing her heart to this most enigmatic earl! ( )