A drunken laugh, a roll of the dice... and Aurora Sprague finds herself a child bride, married in haste to a young man she's never met to settle her father's gaming debt. Moments after the ceremony, the new groom gallops off to the army and Aurora is banished to a remote estate, married in name only.

Penniless and alone, Octavia Hadley finds herself forced to accept a position as governess to an orphaned girl living with her English diplomat guardian in faraway Russia. But when the diplomat abandons them as Napoleon’s army marches into Moscow, Octavia is determined to get both herself and the girl to safety.

For Allegra Proctor, tutoring the Earl of Wrexham's son has its disadvantages—namely the widowed earl himself. Arrogant, cold, and moody, Wrexham is also distractingly dashing.

But Allegra only needs to to keep secret her real reason for taking a job in the wilds of Yorkshire long enough to right the wrong against her father, committed by the earl's dastardly neighbor.