The Defiant Mistress

• Author: Claire Thornton
• Publisher: Mills & Boon
• Year: 2005
• Setting: Restoration, Venice then England
• Amazon Listing - [1] and [2]

Athena has spent years learning to make lace in a French convent, and travels to Venice as another lady's companion. She doesn't expect to meet her lost love, Gabriel Vaughan, merchant and Marquis of Halross. Between them lie old secrets and hurts. There are vivid descriptions of Venice, lace-making and the Great Fire of London but the focus is primarily on the fragile process of rebuilding trust between the hero and heroine.