Penniless! Gwendeline, just 18 and totally unsuited to earn her own way in the world, was to be evicted from her country, estate. Then the butler ushered in a tall, rather arrogant visitor. Lord Merryn. He had, it seemed, been a friend of her late parents, who had lived too well and too briefly--squandering their fortune and then meeting death in a carriage accident. But Gwendeline was an older orphan than Lord Merryn had expected; she was a young lady and must be introduced to London society. Quickly, he invented a "group of her parents' friends" to finance her debut. Never must she learn that he alone was her benefactor- nor why.