Download or read book The Portrait of a Duchess written by Scarlett Peckham and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2023-03-07 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scandalous women of the SOCIETY OF SIRENS are back with an explosive secret…their ranks include a duchess in disguise Once upon a time she married in secret… An activist painter of radicals and harlots, Cornelia Ludgate dismisses love and marriage as threats to freedom. But when an inheritance gives her the chance to fund the cause of women’s rights—on the condition she must wed—she is forced to reveal a secret: she’s already married. To a man she hasn’t seen for twenty years. Oh…and her husband is a duke. A horse breeder with a clandestine taste for revolution, Rafe Goodwood never expected to become a duke. But now that the title is his, he is plotting to shock the ruling class with ambitions of reform—and reveal the infamous Cornelia is his duchess. That just presents one problem: he must not fall in love with her—again. Now they must resist the temptation to rekindle an affair... Although determined not to sacrifice her principles for passion, Cornelia is still drawn to the man whose very being threatens her independence. Hurt too many times, Rafe can’t risk love again—especially with the woman who once shattered his heart. But a conspiracy to upend the inequalities of the aristocracy bring Cornelia and Rafe closer, forcing them to finally decide what—and who—they hold dear.