He's paid to make promises he'll never keep. She dreads nothing so much as empty words. But when he's hired to win her for another, will feigned fondness become literal love? Tyrone Ellsworth's career as a literary lover-in-lieu began at university, where he found amusement and steady spending-silver in writing poetry, love letters and offers of marriage for fellow Oxonians. So when schoolmate Gareth Boulton purchases his pen in order to win the wealthy Miss Agatha Weeks, what could be the harm? The task will be all the easier, in fact, because Tyrone has known her for years as his sister's dearest friend.

Miss Agatha Weeks has never felt for any young man what she felt for the one who broke her heart years earlier. And while she doesn't pine for him any longer, she has begun to doubt there are any worthy, honest young men left. But then suddenly there are two! Mr. Gareth Boulton, whom she dismissed earlier as a callow fortune hunter, begins to reveal new depths in his pursuit of her. And Tyrone Ellsworth-thoughtful, scholarly, kind, comfortable through long acquaintance-if Tyrone cannot be trusted, no one can.

Murder will out, however, and so will mendacity. Can the deceiver escape the consequences of his own deception, or will the beloved deceived be lost to him forever?

? A Scholarly Pursuit is the 4th book in the clean Regency romance series The Ellsworth Assortment. Each book can be read as a stand-alone or in order. ?