Spirited young Lucia Mannering willingly let herself be offered as a prize in a shocking wager between her odious stepfather, Jasper Franklyn, and Hugo, Marquis of Mandersely. For this was her only hope of escape from a household where humiliation was her daily lot and degradation seemed her certain future.

It was only when the bet was settled, and she found herself looking into Hugo's ironic, devilishly handsome face, that Lucia fully realized what she had done. She knew that this nobleman's reputation for cynical wit and scandalous living was the talk of all Regency London. And now she was his, to do with what he liked.

Lucia's daring gamble had begun -- and she trembled to think how it might end. …

The handsome, charming Compte de Varron made no secret of why he had come to England, and now laid siege to Theodora Radlett.

He sought to reclaim the fabulous necklace known as the Diamond Waterfall, once the property of his family, and now in the clutching hands of the old and dying Viscount Radlett.

By now Theodora was hardly shocked that so captivating a man might want more than love from her. She already had learned that her equally attractive and attentive cousin Benedict could easily use her as his stepping stone to wealth and title.

The puzzle was, which man should she choose in a world where no man seemed to be perfect? What test could she devise to discover what was really on their minds when they pleaded with her ... And how could she be certain of what was really in their hearts...?

Her cousin Amaryllis made it clear that Felicity did not belong in the fashionable drawing rooms of the great country house of Cheynings.

Jamie, the six-year-old heir to Cheynings, marked Felicity as his latest victim in a long series of routed governesses.

Lord Stayne, the infuriatingly handsome master of Cheynings, coldly informed her that her ideas and opinions were of no earthly interest to a supremely self-confident male like himself.

And the vile Captain Hardman, whose devious designs Felicity threatened, did not bother to mask his intentions of removing her from his path by either brutal force or contemptible cunning.

Felicity, however, had her own notions about what a woman's place should be--as she set out on a campaign of conquest with only her wit and wiles as weapons, and love as a very treacherous ally....