Lady Francesca, illegitimate daughter of a duke, is taller than most men, better educated, and heiress to a vast fortune. She is one-and-thirty when her father insists she go to London for the Season and return home a married woman.

Galen Pender, Viscount Clayburn, notorious rake, has rebelled against his autocratic father since childhood. Now the earl has selected a bride for his heir, and Clayburn must wed the unnamed Albatross or face financial disaster.

Instead, he resolves to thwart his father by wedding a socially unacceptable woman. Snowbound at a coach-house inn, he meets and tries to seduce a beautiful sharp-tongued woman who would never pass muster with his father.

What he doesn’t know—and Francesca does know—she is the bride his father has chosen for him.