Slightly Tempted

Slightly Tempted is a Regency romance by Mary Balogh, published in 2004 and the fourth of her Bedwyn Saga novels about a large aristocratic family whose brothers and sisters each take a turn at the centre of a story.

Lady Morgan Bedwyn is the youngest daughter and the most independent of them, and she has no interest in being married off. Gervase Ashford, Earl of Rosthorn, is among the most notorious men on the continent, and from the moment he sees Morgan across a glittering ballroom he identifies her as the perfect instrument of his revenge, though wedlock is not what he has in mind. One night of shocking intimacy erupts into a scandal that could make his vengeance sweeter still, except that Morgan stands in his way with a will of her own and an instinct for refusing to be used.

Balogh sets the story in the ballrooms and country houses of Regency England, where a scandal is a form of currency and family loyalty is the strongest claim anyone can make. The novel belongs to a series that follows one family through several seasons, so the Bedwyn brothers and sisters are present throughout as allies, obstacles and chorus.