One escaped lion. Seven days to resolve an impossible crisis. A Lady who thought that she had resigned herself to lonely obscurity. And a Duke who never expected to feel anything again. But some encounters change everything. Miss Leonora Harrowby has spent years being exactly what everyone expected: calm, capable, and quietly resigned to a life of useful obscurity. Then one January morning brings a lion, and an impossible situation, to her garden — and a Duke to her rescue. Except she doesn't need rescuing. Adrian Wycliffe, Duke of Hawkmount, has been sleepwalking through life since tragedy left him numb and isolated. Then he meets a woman who refuses to behave as she should, who challenges every assumption he's made about duty and desire — and who makes him feel again, whether he wants to or not. What begins in chaos becomes something neither of them anticipated. But gossip spreads faster than truth, and the ton has never been kind to women who defy expectations, or Dukes who forget their social place. With time running out and the world watching, they must decide whether to choose safety and solitude, or risk everything for a connection that feels like coming home. Because sometimes love doesn't arrive with roses and poetry. Sometimes it arrives with chaos, courage, and consequences that neither of you saw coming. A sweet and clean Regency romance with humour, heart, and one very inconvenient lion , where steadiness meets stubbornness, and two lonely hearts discover that the most dangerous thing is not the wild beast, but the path that leads to happiness.