Jemima Fernside is the epitome of a well-behaved lady, bred to marry a gentleman and play the part of the perfect wife. Until she finds herself alone in the world without a penny to her name. With few options available to her, Jemima has little choice but to accept a scandalous proposal to become the paid companion to a man she’s never even met.
Solomon ‘Solo’ Weston, the Baron Rothborn, is sick of society, and people in general who leave him irritable and impatient. As Lieutenant Colonel of the 15th King’s Dragoons, he was invalided out of the army after a bullet left him lame. Haunted by guilt, by dead comrades and a lost love, he is becoming ever more reclusive, finding escape through his beloved books. When driven to seek comfort from his bleak existence, Solo believes he has little to offer but financial security in return for a lady’s virtue. But Jemima is not the kind of woman who will leave sleeping ghosts lie, and soon the past and the future don’t look at all like Solo expected them to.