A gentleman by any other name
(Book)

Michaels introduces the Beckets of Romney Marsh, a sprawling British family headed by the eccentric Ainsley Becket and filled out, mostly, with children he "adopted, purchased, [or] scooped up" during his time as a businessman in the Caribbean. In 1811, Ainsley's son Chance, at 30 the eldest of the eight children, is returning to the family estate in Kent with his five-year-old daughter, Alice, and an assignment from the War Office to investigate smugglers. Recently widowed, Chance employs smart, sure Julia Carruthers as a nanny. Attraction between Julia and Chance heats up as she becomes involved in his patchwork family and starts piecing together the family's role in the smuggling enterprise-a role that may be at odds with Chance's official business.