So the Duke does what he always does when he needs any problem solved: He turns the matter over to his man of business, the Wolf of Clermont, an ex-boxer feared by all for the effective ruthlessness he employs against those who threaten the Duke. The last thing the Duke needs is for his wife to find out he “seduced” and impregnated some other woman. He’s deeply in need of funds he can only get from his new wife’s guardian and the Duke has been such a terrible husband to his Duchess that she’s run off and abandoned him. Her behavior couldn’t come at a worse time for the Duke. She decides to sit on a bench in front of his house until she receives compensation and recognition. Serena has confronted the Duke and he has ignored her. From here on out, I am going to happen to things.” As she says, “I am done with things happening to me. Now, Serena is determined to regain her sense of herself and her life. Serena feels complicit in her own rape because she didn’t fight him. The Duke came to her room one night, forced himself on Serena, took her virginity, and left her pregnant. Three months ago, Serena was working as a governess for a family whom the Duke of Clermont came to visit. The Governess Affair tells their story and does so with splendor and insight. He asks the man who handles all his affairs, the fearsome Hugo Marshall, to silence Serena. The Duke, a weak and morally bereft man, has no intention of doing any such thing.

Her experience leaves her pregnant, ashamed, and determined to make her rapist, the Duke of Clermont, acknowledge both his crime and his unborn child. Milan’s latest novella, also a marvelous piece, the heroine, Serena Barton, is forced to have sex against her will. Things, however, are not what they seem, and in that tale, what the hero thinks is forced is really a gift willingly bestowed by the heroine. Milan presents a hero who forces the heroine to make love with him. Perhaps my favorite novella in romance is This Wicked Gift, written and published by Ms.

The governess affair