What the False Heart Doth Know by Elizabeth Ellen Carter

Can hope prevent love from becoming a tragedy?
Lady Sapphira Galbraith’s secret romance with Earl Anthony Redthorpe is over. He is engaged to another.
Now spending Christmas with cousins in storm-battered Norfolk, she puts on a false face of happiness to mask her heartbreak. The only one who seems to understand the depth of her pain is cousin Innes who suggests a marriage of convenience.
As she considers his proposal, a storm blows in unexpected guests – Anthony, his fiancée Elizabeth, and her family. Anthony’s father has died and he is now Duke. What’s more, he has discovered the depth of his father’s deceit in forcing a betrothal to Lady Elizabeth.
Is it enough for hope to grow in Sapphira’s broken heart?
Against the backdrop of an amateur performance of Macbeth, the two lovers must work out how to prevent their love story from becoming a tragedy.

(Note: This story was first published as part of the Anthology set titled A Duke in Winter in December 2022.)