Dark Angel & Lord Carew's Bride by Mary Balogh

I have started a mission to read something by every author on the Historical Romance Retreat guest list. There are many I had never read before!

The second author on the list is Mary Balogh and I picked up a compilation of Dark Angel and Lord Carew's Bride.

Dark Angel is the story of Jennifer, a young woman who has been waiting five years to marry Lionel, a handsome man who turns out to be an ugly villain. In the meantime our hero Gabriel is setting out to destroy said villain for impregnating and deserting his stepmother. Gossips think Gabriel was the villain in that melodrama. He attempts to break up the betrothal and humiliate Lionel, but the tables are turned when Gabriel finds himself the one now betrothed to Jennifer.

Lord Carew's Bride follows Jennifer's cousin Samantha, who had secretly been in love with Lionel the villain. He had been merely toying with a young girl's affections. It's five years later and she has vowed never to love because it only brings heartache. When she meets the landscape gardener at her cousin's neighboring estate, she strikes up a friendship, unaware that he is actually the owner. Hartley Wade, Lord Carew falls instantly in love with Samantha, but hides his identity, wanting to know if her feelings are for him, rather than his title. Due to his physical disabilities, he dubs himself the beast to her beauty. I adore beauty and the beast themed stories.

Both of these books came out in 1995.