Blessed with beauty, fortune, and noble birth, Lady Meredith Barrington puzzles the ton by choosing to remain single. Then a roguish bet placed by her younger brothers leads Meredith to impulsively flirt with—and boldly kiss—the handsome, brooding Marquess of Dardington. A threatened scandal results in a hasty wedding. Theirs is a marriage of convenience, and Meredith is determined to maintain her usual independent ways. Then an apparent accident nearly takes her life, and Meredith, shaken, finds herself turning again and again to her husband, for comfort, for reassurance...and more.