The young and beautiful Charmian finds her father, Lord Altone, murdered in the middle of the night. It transpires that rather than leave Hornbeam Manor and its estate to Charmian's glamorous but manipulative step-mother, Lord Altone has made his daughter his heir, leaving her susceptible to the machinations of villains with their eyes not only on Charmian's creamy bosom but also on her fortune. Before she can fall into the arms of her one true but seemingly unaristocratic suitor, Charmian must fend off a lascivious masked duke, endure a bloody dual fought over her hand in marriage and survive a near-fatal fall from her horse. All the while she is being preened and primed for her launch into the very society whose immorality threatens her virtue and happiness and from which she would rather escape...

Genre: Romance