The widowed Duke of Averell is trying to be a better man...

But when he spies a young woman, reading the Iliad beneath a tree no less, Marcus forgets all his good intentions. Miss Weatherly is outspoken, intelligent and enamored of the ancient Greeks. When she brazenly offers to show him the constellations later that night, Marcus readily agrees.

Unfortunately, Miss Weatherly is not the woman Marcus has come to Halloway Park to offer for.

The Study of a Rake is a steamy regency novella and part of the series The Beautiful Barringtons. It can be read before or after The Theory of Earls.