Charles Everett, Lord Dragoner, was manipulated by into marriage with a commoner whose wealthy parents paid his family to secure “connections” with the aristocracy. Their daughter had loved him from afar, but he vanished the day after the wedding and became a spy for Wellington. With the war over, he returns to England to secure a divorce.

Delilah uses the opportunity to woo her husband. She believes he personifies a line from his beloved Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: “They say, best men are moulded out of faults; And, for the most, become much more the better for being a little bad.”

Semi-notable Error: On the cover, the heroine is wearing the exact same dress worn by the heroine of Francesca’s Rake, published more than two years earlier by RandomHouse/Ballantine. I’m surprised the wealthy Delilah bought a second-hand gown.