Miss Hecate Brompton is on the shelf and relieved to finally be there with her personal wealth in tact. She faces enough challenges keeping her rackety family from scandal and ruin without the added bother of marriage. When Phillip Vincent approaches her with a request to become his de facto finishing governess, she's both appalled by and sympathetic to his plan. She was once the awkward outsider, and knows exactly how treacherous the waters of the Beau Monde can be for the unsuspecting.

To win her love, he will sacrifice everything.

Phillip is mere gentry at heart, and the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair leave him frankly bored. For the sake of his family he must nonetheless learn to do the pretty. Miss Hecate Brompton, is anything but glittering. She's quiet, proper, plain, and-to Phillip-utterly fascinating. He sees what society does not: Behind Hecate's demure facade lurks a fierce heart and a brilliant mind.

Hecate's family has no quarrel with Phillip stealing her heart, but her fortune and her hand in marriage are quite another matter. Can the squire and spinster find a happily ever after when all of polite society intends to deny them exactly that?