good robards, historical novel (I think I had read it before) about a gutter snipe named Jewel Combe who was taken in by Sebastian and groomed to be a lady. Very predictable but enjoyable none the less. ( )

From BackCover:
"You'll have to learn to speak, to dress, to conduct yourself as a lady." Those orders were intoned by Sebastian, the cold haughty Earl of Moorland to Jewel Combs, the cockney commoner defiantly facing him in his luxurious drawing room. Despite his icy demeanor, Jewel couldn't help but notice that the Earl was a breathtakingly handsome man. Still, the only thing that checked her saucy reply was the realization that the Earl's outlandish plans would give her a home, and she would never be hungry, shivering, or frightened in dark dockside alleyways again.

Fate had brought Jewel to the mansion on Grosvenor Square, now she was going to grab the gold ring of chance and become "Julia Stratham," a genuine upper-crust, silk-and lace aristocrat. She didn't know why blue-blooded Sebastian had accepted the challenge to transform her from a diamond in the rough into a glittering gem. She did know she had a surprise in store of her own.

She would teach this titled nobleman that although she wasn't a lady, she was all woman...and the one with whom he was going to madly, unwisely, and passionately fall in love with! ( )