While Elanor Huxley misses the glamour and excitement of society, she is quite resigned to a quiet life, after her lovable but frivolous parents died and left her not only an orphan, but a penniless one as well. Biding her time in the home of her self-absorbed cousins, she saves her pennies and dreams of the day she can afford to rent her own tiny cottage in the country and find contentment.
But when she and her cousin Harriet are rescued from their overturned carriage by the handsome and capable Mr. Patrick, Elanor finds herself thinking less about contentment and more about love and happiness – with Mr. Patrick.
Christopher Patrick Bane, Duke of Price, decides not to reveal to Elanor that he is a Duke – Kit has just come into the title with the death of the cruel father who banished him overseas for a youthful transgression, and he does not want it to color her judgment of him. But as he gets to know Elanor better, he realises he has created a rod for his own back – it is becoming more and more difficult to find the right time.
And when Elanor discovers his true identity by accident, and exactly what his youthful discretion was, he wonders if he will ever have any chance at all to win back her affections.
