As a young woman must marry and become engaged in proper duties, art can only be an accomplishment and a recreation.Lady Charity Baxendale has long dreamed of becoming a renowned portrait painter. After she's received two significant commissions from esteemed family members, a rakish Scottish baron commissions her to do his portrait, and she feels she is one step closer.When Robin, Lord Stanberry, with whom Charity has had a long friendship, asks her to marry him, she must choose between marriage and her career. She refuses him, for he is heir to a dukedom, and Charity fears that not only would she be unsuited to life as a duchess but also that her burgeoning career might end before it begins. And besides, Robin has made no mention of love.Due to tragic unforeseen circumstances, Robin is now the Duke of Harwood. Robin feels himself unfitted for such a position. He was perfectly content living as a Viscount in Tunbridge Wells, writing a manuscript on ornithology. He'd hoped to have Charity at his side by the time he took his place at Harwood Castle, for her pragmatic nature and strength of character would be of enormous help to him. Should he have thrown himself at her feet and declared an undying love? Charity would have seen through it, for that was not the sort of friendship they enjoyed. But her refusal has brought him lower than he'd thought possible. Can he change her mind, despite the distance that now lay between them?Can be read as a stand alone.