Certainly the two should never have met. The handsome, wealthy Marquess of Rockingham was the most notorious man in London, as infamous for his violent temper as he was for his intemperate ways.

Miss Lucinda Westerville was a country vicar’s daughter, as innocent as she was lovely and as proper as a young lady could possibly be.

Yet when this improbably matched pair met at a glittering social ball, they had struck the dubious bargain to become man and wife – in name only! But Lucinda soon found that she had taken on more than she bargained for when she vowed not to love this untamed, infuriatingly attractive man when she tried to rein her own foolishly galloping heart.