In England, she meets three other girls through a mysterious brothel. The four young women agree to present themselves as sisters and as wards of Lady Beatrice, with Aunt Bea's encouragement. While the back story for this was presented in book one, enough is explained in book two that this can be read as a standalone novel. Max asks his best friend, The Honorable Frederick Monkton-Coombes, to watch over the three remaining sisters and Max's Aunt Bea while he is away on his honeymoon with the fourth sister.

Demaris is secretly working painting pottery in a bad part of London to save up a nest egg for security. Freddy discovers her work and feels compelled to escort her in this dangerous neighborhood, and they strike up a friendship, whereupon Demaris confides that she will never marry. Freddy has no interest in marrying now, but his estranged mother is maneuvering him into a house party in order to get him leg-shackled to what he terms a muffin, or a seriously marriage-minded eligible female. Freddy proposes to Demaris that she act as his fake fiancée so that he may escape the matchmaking at his family's house party, in exchange for purchasing Demaris the security of her own cottage.

Freddy's parents have unfairly blamed him for his brother's death many years ago. When they meet, Demaris champions Freddy to his cruel parents and tries to force Freddy's family to acknowledge the unfairness of his treatment at their hands. When leaving the family estate, the two are marooned alone in a cottage and discovered when the floodwaters recede, necessitating converting their fake engagement into a true marriage. But Demaris and Freddy have truly fallen in love over the course of their fake engagement, and even the revelations of what Demaris was forced to endure in her escape from China cannot break their love asunder.

THE WINTER BRIDE is rollicking fun superimposed in regency England. There are plenty of silly references to muffins and experimental Chinese swimming pigs, which kept me laughing throughout. I anxiously awaited each unfolding revelation of Demaris' past as to why she believed herself to be unmarriageable. The revelations of how Freddy "killed" his brother also heighten the suspense. There are two more Chance sisters, so I have two more books by Anne Gracie that are on my auto-buy list when they are released.

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