“Take me to your heart. For it’s there that I belong, and will never part.”

Miss Eloise Mumford, daughter of the late Baron of Saville, is desperately looking for a way out of the repressive ton. Pressured by her mother to marry well, she would much rather live as a spinster in the countryside.

The Duke of Harridan, Antony Redmond, is in equal need of an escape. The black sheep of his own family, it is common knowledge among the Ton’s gossip that the “monster” killed his own father to take the title.

Now living with his sister in London, he has a peculiar proposal for Eloise: they can pretend to be courting. That way, she will be left alone by most suitors, while he will be seen as desirable among the ladies of the Ton. Caught in a web of lies, they are too busy to see the danger lurking in the shadows. Antony’s past returns to haunt him, and Eloise must decide: Can she ever truly trust the Beast?