Even after fourteen years of marriage Lady Amelia Farringdon and her husband, Lord Justin Farringdon still love and adore one another.
Pregnant with her fifth child, Amelia cannot help but reflect on how wonderful her life is.
Despite her children’s governess, and lifelong friend, Mrs Kate Hendriks’ wariness of Justin, she knows her husband is a good man.
While Kate finds him often rude and imposing, he makes Amelia happy.
Kate’s own life hasn’t been the kindest and sweet-hearted Amelia constantly tries to ensure that both her and her restless son, Tom, are happy.
As the war with Napoleon drags on, Tom is desperate to join the army and Justin is more than happy to help, but Kate fears they will find out her secret.
After all, Tom’s father may have been a soldier but he wasn’t called Hendriks, and legally, neither is she.
She’s done her best to forget Leon Danby, the soldier who seduced and raped her at the tender age of fifteen, and only Amelia knows the truth.
In the days leading up to Amelia’s labour, the two must endure Justin’s icy and malicious cousin Lady Millicent Thorpe, as she prepares for her niece’s debut.
However, tragedy soon strikes. Amelia’s labour goes awry and though a healthy baby girl is delivered, Amelia is dying.
Summoned to her deathbed, she makes Justin swear he’ll remarry – but not just to anyone; to keep their children safe from Millicent, she wants him to marry Kate.
Within a few hours of Amelia’s death, they keep their word and marry.
But how can Kate love her friend’s arrogant, grief stricken husband?
Not only that, how can Kate keep her promise to Amelia, when Millicent is determined to see her ruined?
Can she keep the truth about her past hidden, and her son safe?
Can her and Justin truly live as husband and wife?
Set in early 19th Century England, The Loving Spirit is an adventurous tale, showing that even in tragedy, passionate true love is entirely possible.
Lucy Gordon began working life on a British women's magazine, where she interviewed famous men like Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guinness, Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain and Charlton Heston. But since 1984, she has been publishing her romance novels – twice winning the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for the Best Traditional Romance. She is now married to a Venetian artist and together, they have lived in different parts of Italy, though currently reside in her native England.