The Chef and the Countess (The Duke’s Bastards #2)

An East End chef with a dark past. A widowed countess with nowhere to turn. An unlikely pair with a passion for cooking—and each other.

Liam Hallahan, illegitimate son of a disreputable duke, carries hidden scars from a childhood living on the streets. Through sheer determination, he acquired an education, took the gaming hall he’d inherited and successfully turned it into a respectable restaurant. Liam isn’t usually surprised by life’s twists and turns…until a widowed Countess is unceremoniously dumped on his doorstep.

Men have ruled Celia Gillingham’s life for as long as she could remember. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle...

An East End chef with a dark past. A widowed countess with nowhere to turn. An unlikely pair with a passion for cooking—and each other.

Liam Hallahan, illegitimate son of a disreputable duke, carries hidden scars from a childhood living on the streets. Through sheer determination, he acquired an education, took the gaming hall he’d inherited and successfully turned it into a respectable restaurant. Liam isn’t usually surprised by life’s twists and turns…until a widowed Countess is unceremoniously dumped on his doorstep.

Men have ruled Celia Gillingham’s life for as long as she could remember. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle negotiated a marriage for her with an old earl. After her husband’s death, Celia, now alone and penniless, goes back to her uncle’s home, only to find herself dropped off at an East End business by her viscount cousin. He tells Liam that Celia will work off his gaming debt. Instead, Celia asks Liam for a job. And Liam reluctantly agrees, putting the countess to work in his kitchen.