Maria just gave birth to her first child, a beautiful daughter-but the event is shrouded in sorrow. A month earlier, Maria's husband, Lord Kersey, was killed in a duel under compromising circumstances. Worse, Maria's failure to provide a male heir has stripped her of any hope of an inheritance. Scorned by the ton , one of her few allies is her late husband's steward, Hugh Granger. Hugh is everything her husband was not-warm, charming-and penniless. . . . Hugh has fallen desperately in love with Maria, but has little to offer but comfort. As their attraction becomes impossible to resist, Maria flees to London to spend Christmas with her dearest friends, a group of widows who lost their own husbands in the Battle of Waterloo. Little does she know the holidays will reveal a twist of fate she never expected-proving that the greatest Christmas gift is the magic of true love . . .