Mrs Budley falls from grace - M. C. Beaton

Another Poor Relation has to resort to genteel thievery to make end meet - but she gets much more than she bargains for!

Cut off by her own relations, pretty, dainty widow Eliza Budley must visit some other family manor to purloin expensive baubles.
Happily, the rich Marquess of Peterhouse is in his dotage and wouldn't know a relative from a bedpost, so Eliza is sent to play the imposter.

But things do not go as planned and Eliza is met by the new Marquess - wickedly handsome, and with all his wits about him.
And somehow Eliza finds herself confessing her bluff to him and he in turn is much taken with her daring and charm
- but can he fall in love with such a scheming
widow from the world of trade? Time for the other Poor Relations to get involved and help these confused lovers!