When William Fitch Minstead, the sixth Earl of Ackerman, agrees to a private audience with a lovely stranger, he's rewarded with the fateful news that he is the father of a little girl. After the death of her friend Elizabeth Bradstreet, Miss Hilary Compton became Lizzie's guardian. It is clear that Miss Compton thinks Fitch has neglected a child he never knew existed and she intends to right that wrong. Captivated by her charm and wit, the earl proposes a solution: a marriage of convenience.

    Though she is only the daughter of a country squire, Hilary is independent to a fault--not the sort to submit to the whims of a handsome earl with a rakish reputation, even if Fitch insists that his service during the brutal Crimean War left him a changed man. Her decission would be so much easier were he the seducing scoundrel she had expected. Perhaps the arrangement he suggests is for the best--if she can keep herself from falling in love.