With little to live on but her romantic daydreams - which frequently starred the dashing Marquess of Fleetwater - Jean Lindsay lived a rather dismal life with her nasty, drunken uncle. Jean was always the object of ridicule, that is, until news of her unexpected inheritance spread. Suddenly her worn dresses became ''quaint'' and her forthright manner turned magically to ''charming,'' but to Jean's horror, someone wanted her dead! With the marquess nearby to save her pretty neck, Jean felt quite safe . . . and quite smitten. As for her hero . . . how had an unsophisticated child from a Scottish manse turned his head and his heart askew?

Harry, to Isabella Chadbury's relief, agrees their marriage will be in name only. Neither knows the other's disguise is contrived in vain to thwart impending nuptials. Isabella is no selfish ice princess, nor Harry a mincing dandy, rather a prime Corinthian. A search for buried treasure, vengeful thwarted suitor, and unexpected passion bring the hearts together.

Lord Percy Hunterdon despaired: he had inherited a Gothic horror of an estate along with a pair of fifteen-year-old brats to marry off. It was no secret to him that finding husbands for these two vile young ladies would require the utmost expertise: the care of a governess of superior caliber. When Jean Morrison spied Lord Hunterdon's advertisement, dreams of an unmarried viscount and a magnificent castle danced in her head. She imagined him as Byronic and brooding, pacing the battlements with a black cloak wrapped around his manly shoulders. And naturally, he would fall madly in love with her. Her dreams immediately burst apart at the seams when she saw the dank, dirty Trelawney Castle and encountered for the first time the evil dispositions of her new charges. Still, despite all of this, the golden hair and dancing eyes of her employer conjured up fantasies that were most unseemly for a governess of distinction.

She must have been mad. She was on her way to marry a man she had never set eyes on! It was true. The lovely young widow, Lady Charteris (Delphine to her friends), had agreed to abide by her parents' wishes and marry the Comte Saint Pierre. Delphine's parents had long since died in the French terror, but when she learned of their wishes for her, she believed it her duty to respect their wishes. Delphine would marry, but it would be a marriage in name only. But when Delphine saw Jules Saint Pierre, she got the shock of her life. He was the same man she had seen juggling in the streets at a local fair. What was he doing as the Comte Saint Pierre? Was he posing? Had she made some terrible mistake?

When the Earl of Devenham returns after ten years to marry Mary Anstey, Mary's younger sister, Emily, comes up with a bizarre scheme to prevent the unhappy wedding