Top
Governess Eden Henderson suddenly finds herself homeless and unemployed when her pupil, Isabella, runs away from her parents’ country home and hides in the neighboring home of the infamous Earl of Dudley, known as an opponent of the institution of marriage because of a scandalous article he once wrote. Isabella fled to him to avoid her father’s insistence that she marry an elderly man for his title.
Isabella’s father fires Eden and informs the earl that he must either marry his daughter or meet him in a duel. The earl, who prefers to be known by his name, Roger “Brent” Brentwood, suddenly finds himself with two young women, unchaperoned, facing ruin. Brent has to take the situation seriously because his mentor, Lord Langley, needs him to be scandal-free for political reasons. He offers to marry Isabella, though he prefers Eden, but Isabella demands that he convey herself and Eden to London, where her formidable grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Carminster, will prevent the marriage.
The duchess takes Isabella in but declines to employ Eden. Her reasons are mysterious, but Eden understands—it is because of her uncanny resemblance to her deceased mother. Brent feels responsible for her and persuades her to go to the Langleys, who need a governess.
Brent and Eden are strongly attracted to one another from the first. He proposes, not realizing that Eden is a runaway wife. Her husband is a vindictive murderer. If he finds her, everyone who has helped her is in danger. To protect them, Eden has to flee again, but her husband has arranged for his heir to murder them all after his death. Brent succeeds in defeating this plot, but there are a few more secrets that have to be dealt with before the two can wed.
