Jenna has followed the drum with her father, a British Army colonel, most of her life. Since the death of her mother, Jenna has been her father's chief companion. She has grown to love the adventure of traveling with the regiment, despite the lack of comforts and the constant threat of danger. She has also grown to love her father's second-in-command, Major Garrett Fairchild. Since Garrett Fairchild's fiancée left him for another man, he has gone into battle prepared to die a glorious death that would at least erase the pain of his heartbreak. But the friendship of his colonel's daughter, a woman who is dearer to him than any sister, has lately renewed his interest in life. Can he forget the past and learn to love again?

Lord Anthony Nelthorpe had committed many sins—not the least of which was his hare-brained attempt to seduce the well-bred Jenna Montague Fairchild into marrying him. But that was three years past, before the war magnified life's conceit; after Waterloo, he who scoffed at honor, was nursed back to health by the very woman he'd wronged, while her husband, a man of honor, Jenna could not save. Back in London, Tony seized the chance to shake the wealthy young widow out of her frightening apathy—even if he was the last man on earth she wanted to see. He hit upon a challenge: since Jenna was the instrument of saving his rascal skin, did she not owe it to all those heroes to make a better man of him? She would train him until Christmas—the season of miracles. Now Tony just had to figure out how to win this wager without wanting her all over again . . .