To keep her cherished childhood home, Samantha Everard must marry by her twenty-fifth birthday. Yet she refuses to marry on a whim, even to save her fortune. When she returns to Dallsten Manor to say goodbye, the last person she expects to see is her handsome, disapproving neighbor William Wentworth, Earl of Kendrick.

Will is certain the scandalous Everards are nothing but trouble. He shouldn't care about Samantha's predicament, but her feistiness and kindheartedness intrigue him-as do the secrets surrounding her. Soon his greatest wish becomes to persuade Samantha that her true home is with him.