“All that I am, I give to you, all that I have, I share with you…”

When Lady Lydia Reed’s first love left her without warning, her heart turned to ice. Left alone with just her uncle after her father’s tragic death, she must marry in less than a year to inherit her dowry.

There are two things Matthew Walsh, newly-appointed Earl of Paxton, will never forgive: his parents for sending him into exile, and Lydia for not writing to him. Determined to get his life back, he makes a bewildering proposal: a fake marriage to Lydia.

When old feelings return with a vengeance, their reunion nearly costs them their lives. A woeful wail is all Lydia manages before she’s forced on a carriage to Gretna Green with a man she now hates. For the sins of the father, shall be visited upon the daughter.