A Michaelmas Truce (The Mercer's House #4)

A family in trade moving up in the world. A family of landed gentry stepping aside for them. And the sons and daughters caught in the middle.

Madge Paton has been the mainstay of the Fletcher household for a quarter of a century, and even though her role managing the household and raising the children has been usurped by Harry Fletcher’s new wife, there’s still work to be done for a spinster aunt. She misses their Yorkshire life, but things aren’t so bad in the south of England. If only she didn’t have to put up with that irritating Morgan Plummer, and his argumentative ways.

Morgan Plummer has reached the advanced age of fifty without ever achieving anything in his life. Invalided out of the army twenty years ago, he’s lived at his brother’s expense ever since. The arrival of the Fletcher family in the neighbourhood has livened things up, and at last he has a worthy opponent to spar with in grumpy Madge Paton. But both families dislike their bickering, and they’re told to call a truce. To force them to get along, they’re given a puzzle to solve - find the groom who set out to visit his mother and never returned. Two sensible, middle-aged people can’t get into too much trouble with that, can they? But the past has a nasty habit of upending the best laid plans…

This is a complete story with a happy ever after. A traditional Regency romance, drawing room rather than bedroom. Book 4 of a 6 book series.