The painter's daughter, paperback/julie klassen

Julie Klassen Is the Gold Standard for Inspirational Regency Fiction Sophie Dupont, daughter of a portrait painter, assists her father in his studio, keeping her own artwork out of sight.

She often walks the cliffside path along the north Devon coast, popular with artists and poets.

Its where she met the handsome Wesley Overtree, the first man to tell her shes beautiful.

Captain Stephen Overtree is accustomed to taking on his brothers neglected duties.

Home on leave, hes sent to find Wesley.

Knowing his brother rented a cottage from a fellow painter, he travels to Devonshire and meets Miss Dupont, the painters daughter.

Hes startled to recognize her from a miniature portrait he carries with him--one of Wesleys discarded works.

But his happiness plummets when he realizes Wesley has left her with child and sailed away to Italy in search of a new muse.

Wanting to do something worthwhile with his life, Stephen proposes to Sophie.

He does not offer love, or even a future together, but he can save her from scandal.

If he dies in battle, as he believes he will, shell be a respectable widow with the protection of his family.

Desperate for a way to escape her predicament, Sophie agrees to marry a stranger and travel to his familys estate.

But at Overtree Hall, her problems are just beginning.

Will she regret marrying Captain Overtree when a repentant Wesley returns? Or will she find herself torn between the father of her child and her growing affection for the husband she barely knows?.