When two people have walked through fire, can love bring the healing and help they need? Spurned by love, Lady Margaux Ashbury has no use for the other eligible gentlemen of London. Despite her beauty, her sharp tongue soon earns her a reputation as a dragon. Convincing her parents to let her retreat to their Scottish estate, a home for abandoned young women, Margaux feels she can do something meaningful with her life. At their wits' end, her parents believe a few months in seclusion will teach her to appreciate her privileged existence, and accept the next gentleman of worth who offers for her. Margaux has no plans to yield. But neither she nor her parents bargain for the proximity of the gorgeous, blue-eyed Scotsman on the neighbouring estate. Gavin Craig, content with his life as a country doctor, is unexpectedly thrust into the world of aristocratic society after the accidental deaths of his brother and nephews. With all the duties his new title entails, and his adoption of three orphans, Gavin desperately needs a wife. She should preferably be a lady, trained since birth to manage a noble house, servants and family. His former disdain for a marriage of convenience has been rapidly overcome by the colossal task of learning to run a large Scottish barony. One lovely candidate is right next door … except that she's inexplicably determined to be a spinster…

Along with her triplet sisters, Lady Beaujolais Winslow is a celebrated beauty, but after five seasons she has yet to find a match she finds tolerable. Since her father refuses to arrange a marriage, it is rumoured in London society that she is holding out for a duke. Benedict Stanton, Duke of Yardley, vowed never to marry again when his first marriage ended in a scandalous divorce. Having retreated to the country for nearly a decade, he is thought to be a cold-hearted recluse. Now faced with leaving his dukedom to the Crown for lack of an heir, he sets out to find a bride in a manner more suited to generations past—through his solicitor. When Lady Beaujolais receives one of the Duke’s impersonal proposals, she rejects it out of hand and in considerable anger. Little does she know she is soon to be forced into his company every day…

Five years have passed since Lady Anjou Winslow, one of the triplet daughters of the Marquess Ashbury, watched her love, Lieutenant Gardiner, leave for the war in America. They were secretly married just before his departure, and though the War Office has declared him dead, she refuses to believe it. No trace of him was ever found. Private enquiry agents, hired by Lord Ashbury, have searched to no avail, yet something inside Anjou refuses to believe her husband is dead. Despite her fears of the ocean, she therefore convinces her brother to escort her on the long voyage to America. Captain Edward Harris, the Wind’s brusque master, does not want her on his ship. Nevertheless, he consents to her passage after her desperate pleas. As Anjou and Charles search for Lieutenant Gardiner, more comes to light than either expected. Will the Captain somehow stand in the way of her lost love’s return?