Lady Grace Wellford has always been happy riding about the countryside with her best friend, Miss Amelia Gardner, and Amelia's brother Theodore. Far happier than when she is expected to be ladylike indoors. But now that she is eighteen, her mother intends that to change, in preparation for the coming Season. Even the chance for Amelia to stay at Hesterton Park with her is not enough to make up for the loss of her freedom...
Mr Theodore Gardner is coming to realise that, now that they are both grown, he sees Lady Grace rather differently from before - but he knows that she can never be for him - she is far above his social standing, and her mother hopes that she will marry a man of even higher standing than her. But part of him still hopes. When the Marquess of Chesterport and his sisters come to visit Hesterton Park, Lady Grace's mother is determined that she will make a match between the Marquess and Grace. It is a plan which does not meet with Grace's approval.... Then, when a sudden storm results in an unexpected kiss amongst the supposedly haunted castle ruins, four lives are thrown into turmoil. Will they have the courage to admit their true feelings? or will Grace and the Marquess bow to family pressure and each marry the wrong person?