She's far above his touch...but has always remained in his heart. Lady Eliza Kent, the only child of the Earl of Leith, is a wild beauty. Since birth, she's broken nearly every rule. Catching frogs on the banks of the Thames. Riding bareback. Memorizing Shakespeare. Adoring the vicar's youngest son. Octavian Simms never conformed to his father's rigid expectations. He loved wrestling, marksmanship, mathematics, French...and the local earl's hellion daughter. During the wars, he put his talents to best use and disappeared into France to help his country defeat the tyrant Napoleon. Home now that Napoleon lives in exile in St. Helena and weary of fighting, Octo ponders how to live the rest of his life. Then Eliza appears at his employer's house party and challenges him to change his life completely. Can he seize the dream he'd lost amid the turmoil of war? Or will he lose the one woman whose love he's always craved?