Life and romance novels being what they are, the gods laugh at their plans and they fall quietly and deeply in love.

George and Dora are strongly attracted to and hold great affection for each other, but agree that they are marrying for companionship rather than a grand passion. She sees in his gesture her chance to seek out a new kind of life as a a wife and – who knows – maybe a mother as well. They may be older than usual characters, but George and Dora are both young enough and old enough to make the relationship work despite the difference in their stations. When George reappears out of the blue to ask for her hand in marriage, Dora is stunned, but her instincts tell her to say yes. The sister of the heroine of Only Enchanting, Dora is forty, to George’s forty-eight, and lives and works quite pleasantly as a musician and teacher in a country town. She was flattered by the attention and enjoyed his company as well. The Survivors’ Club holds annual reunions and during one of these George was introduced to and delighted by Miss Dora Debbins. Opening his ancestral home allowed him to help others, heal himself, and deflect the world’s attempts to see beyond the comfort he gives others and into his own pain. George lost his young son in the War and his wife, unable to bear her grief, took her own life.

Each of them has now had a love story and embarked on a new life, so it is their host’s turn to find companionship and a fulfilling homelife. Six of the patients, a woman and five men, stayed behind when the others left and over three years of healing formed an intense bond.

About a decade ago, George, Duke of Stanhope, turned his estate into a hospital and took wounded Napoleonic War veterans into his home. The last book in Mary Balogh’s excellent seven book historical romance Survivors’ Club series features the kindest man in the world and a happy spinster.

Only a Promise by Mary Balogh