As a duke's daughter, Lady Kathleen Carhart is the epitome of society, married to a man who is heir to his cousin, a marquess. Just three short months of marriage and Edward "Ned" leaves London for China to oversee family business. Three years later Kate is still waiting for her husband and has been subjected to wagers in bedding her, with no winners. Kate's energy is spent in spiriting away the marquess' sister, Laura Beeton, and her infant son from a physically abusive husband, Alex, the Viscount Beeton.

Shock awaits Kate as Ned suddenly returns, a changed man, complete with personal dragons to slay. In trying to renew their marriage, Ned finds it impossible to open up and reveal his secrets to Kate until she is threatened by Alex for helping his wife escape. Ned struggles to come to terms with the fact that his best friend could be the monster he is accused of being. Trust becomes the issue for Ned to again claim his beautiful wife.

I thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating plot devised by Courtney Milan. Kate and Ned are loving and vivacious characters searching for the serenity of being husband and wife. Kate is exceptionally strong and motivated and extremely loyal to husband and friends. The pages flew past and ended far too quickly.

Book Summary

Lady Kathleen Carhart has everything she could want: generous pin-money, a fulfilling life of charity, and a husband who lives six thousand miles away. But then her husband returns. Ned Carhart returned to help his best friend find his wife, who has disappeared. And now he’s inquiring into the carefully-guarded secrets Kate has kept. Ned is as determined to understand Kate as he is to discover the whereabouts of the missing woman. And that is the least convenient part of their marriage, as Kate is the one who stole her away in the first place.