Meet Cressida Mayard, a simple merchant’s daughter from the colonies, who is sent off to London while the War for American Independence rages. Her father is to follow her, but he doesn’t appear, and her aunt takes it upon herself to make this rash American into something, or someone, that the ton will love. Meanwhile Cressida thwarts her aunt at every chance. She wants no part of the peerage. Will Cressida find love in the land of her father? Or will she hop on the first ship back to America?
Meet James Rutherford, the Duke of Lorne, who has never found a woman he could not woo, and never found a woman he wanted to marry. His mother is anxious for him to wed and secure his lineage. His sister knows he is a rake. When he finds a colonial waif running through his garden, he may think she is an easy woman, but when she rails on the pompous nerve of all the peerage, he decides it is best to keep his title a secret, until he realizes the only she hates more than a title is a liar.