Handsome and wealthy Lord Christopher Highclare made it painfully clear why he was asking a virtual nobody like Miss Louisa Cherington to be his wife. He had made a promise to her dying brother to do so and was honour-bound to keep that vow. Proud and beautiful Louisa made it just as clear why she was accepting this man who not only made no pretence of loving her, but made no secret of the ravishing woman who was his mistress. Louisa, too, was bowing to the wishes of her late brother, who wanted to rescue her from poverty and the peril of Captain Geoffrey Lawrence, the notorious rake who was in hot pursuit of her. Thus these two were bound to marry – and bound to wonder what would happen.