Dante Muir was a determined bachelor with problems beyond the pale. His father was consummate gambler, his older brother an invalid, with a disinterested and selfish wife and his younger brother a drunk. Their estate, Cliff Walk Manor was in serious disrepair.
A proposition from the intimidating Betts Trowbridge would see them out of their desolate situation by wedding her granddaughter, Sarah Jane and begetting a male heir within five years. For this Dante would receive one hundred thousand pounds.
Sarah Jane at the tender age of eighteen was swept from under the thumb of her grandmother only to find herself wrapped hopelessly around the finger of her brooding new husband. Between shattered dreams and devious schemes and capturing the heart of her husband, she would discover the destiny they expected least would be the reason to yearn for more. ( )