Helga in Hiding (The Eternal Collection #277)

Things had been bad enough for the inspiring and beautiful young Helga Wensley when her much-loved father died some five years ago, leaving her and her mother in penury.
Recently her ailing mother too has passed away, which means that her stepfather, Sir Hector Preston, is now her Guardian. To make matters worse he promises her hand in marriage to a cruel and uncouth man called Bernard Howell, a Fate that she considers worse than dying.
As her mother suggested soon before her death, Helga goes for help to her estranged Aunt Millicent, a glamorous actress from the notorious Gaiety Theatre – and her life changes forever.
Putting herself forward for a ‘role’ paying her one thousand pounds in which she pretends to be the fiancée of the dashing Hugo, Duke of Rocklington, Helga finds herself with the most sought-after bachelor in the whole of the Social world at his fabulous country seat, Rock Castle.
And, despite Aunt Millicent’s firm instructions not to fall in love with the Duke, Helga is smitten and finds that playing the part of the lovestruck fiancée requires no acting at all.
But all that changes when by chance Helga again meets the dreaded Bernard Howell, who pursues her brandishing his horse whip and she races back to Rock Castle to the Duke to save her –