BEAUTY AND THE BARON Series

One day, the impoverished but kind Angela receives a visit from the successor to a neighboring Earl, Lord Daventry. Hiding a terrible war wound with a mask, Lord Daventry avoids the public eye. He is feared by the people of the village, who believe he practices black magic. "What business could Lord Daventry have with me?" On her guard, Angela asks the reason for his visit, and Lord Daventry opens his dour mouth and abruptly proposes marriage. His grandfather's death is imminent, and to make him happy, Lord Daventry proposes a fictional engagement. Not realizing that her heart is drawn to this closed-off man, Angela accepts.

For the sake of the old Earl, who has fallen ill, Angela and Lord Daventry have agreed to a sham engagement. After the death of the Earl, when she is supposed to call the engagement off, Angela realizes that she loves Lord Daventry. "Though we're as different as night and day, I want this to be a real engagement." She conveys her feelings to him, but Lord Daventry, thinking she's confusing love with pity, turns her down. Lord Daventry believes that Angela should marry the vicar, who loves her, and not a man who hides his terrible wound behind a mask and is feared as "Lord Lucifer."