When family disaster stripped the youthful Leonie Conyngham of everything, she went from being the most important pupil at an exclusive Mayfair school to being the lowliest teacher. Now, Leonie is in her twenties and her beauty attracts the attention of the Duke of Thornbury, a notorious rake, as well as the loathsome advances of his odious friend, Edward Longhurst. Edward's elegant sister, Imogen, is the belle of the London Season, and she is as devious and spiteful as the two men put together. When handsome, gallant Sir Guy de Lacy enters the scene, Leonie soon falls foul of Imogen's jealous spite, and has to fight hard to retain her reputation ...as well as to prove to Hal that she is not the untrustworthy, immoral creature that her enemies paint her to be.