The handsome, elegant and wealthy Sir Sebastian Sheringham had seen only a miniature portrait of Bryony St. Charles when he selected her to be his bride. It was clear to Bryony that this man who had everything he wanted - including the ravishing Countess of Lowndes as his mistress - needed a wife only as a social convenience. Meanwhile, Sebastian's cousin and arch rival, the dashing and devastatingly attractive Duke of Calborough, proposed that Bryony flout all social proprieties and surrender to his seductive charms. With an offer of marriage without love or love without marriage, Bryony must decide what she wants - one, or the other, or both!