As children of feuding Derbyshire landowners, Mary Penley and Kit Stansell eloped against their families' wishes. Too willful to be bound by their families' prejudices, they became secret friends instead—and then much more than friends. When they eloped, they thought they'd put rivalry and contention behind them. But neither ardor nor marriage could overpower their own restless natures. Nine years later, Kit is a rising star in the military, while Mary has made her way in a raffish intellectual society of poets and reformers. A chance meeting reignites their passion. But they live for very different values: Kit wants to maintain order in the land, Mary to challenge the repressions of the day.