The Officer and the Southerner by Rose Gordon

Being the logical scientist he is, Alex decides to take his friend''s advice and treat his quest for a bride just like a science experiment. With a loophole that allows him to marry another without consequence before the thirtieth anniversary of his birth, he has only four weeks to find another woman and make her his wife. The overly scientific, always respectable, and socially awkward Alexander Banks has just been informed his name resides on a betrothal agreement right above the name of the worst chit in all of England.

But when Wallace learns that not only does Edwina have another suitor, but that her advice was meant to help him woo the wrong lady, he forms his own plan: use Edwina’s wooing advice on Edwina.

So when she offers to give him advice for how to conduct a courtship that will end with the most favorable result: marriage, he agrees without hesitation. With an inquisitive disposition, yet a relaxing presence, Edwina is a mystery which has held him captive ever since their first meeting three years ago. Everyone except one Miss Edwina Banks, that is. Having been deceived and used more times than he’d care to remember, he’s erected a wall around his heart and is skeptical of everyone. Or can she… Despite his three engagements, the thrice-jilted baronet, Sir Wallace Benedict, has never had an easy time charming those of the fairer sex. For truly then she can put aside her feelings for him and pursue her own match.

Disappointed but not defeated, Edwina forms a plan to help Sir Wallace gain his much-deserved and long awaited happily-ever-after by winning the object of his affection’s favor. She then spends three years doing everything in her power to see him again only to be devastated when she hears that he still holds a tendre for his former love interest―Lady Chatterfield. Upon their first meeting, seventeen year old Edwina Banks loses her heart to the handsome, Sir Wallace Benedict.

The Officer and the Southerner by Rose Gordon