SOLVED. gentleman breaks leg while traveling thru seamstress rooms [s]

[Janelle]

Solved! It is called "the shadow and the star" author, laura Kinsale! I once read a historical romance about a seamstress that took sewing home with her and one night a gentleman, who knows martial arts and generally used her rooms as a passageway at night, came in and collided with her moved sewing machine, breaking his leg and was found out. Later he thinks of her when a ?friend or relative? needs a companion for their ?daughter, niece, cousin? Does anyone know the name and author of this book so i can read it again?