Beautiful and well-bred Lillian Ashdown would be the envy of her peers, were it not for one small fact: her family has fallen on hard times. Raised to be a noblewoman by fact and not only by name, she has felt like a fish out of water for most of her life. However, she soon finds a chance to improve her circumstances. The catch? It comes with an arranged marriage to a well-known charmer and rogue. Martin Stanbury is an outrageously handsome and outspoken young aristocrat whose cutting wit keeps getting him into trouble—and right back out of it. Unknown to all but himself, this display is a clever façade, one that is one step away from being unraveled by his emerging feelings for his newly betrothed. But he has played the part of a scoundrel for most of his life, and old habits die hard. Will the pair beat their own shortcomings and build a life to be envied and admired? Or will her lack of prestige and his roguish veneer put their marriage into the grave before it even begins?