A man of structure and a woman of impulse fires long suppressed passions. Lady Rebecca Thatcher cares nothing for fashion or societal dictates. Her destiny in life is to fight for those less fortunate, be it woman, child, or animal. And when a young boy appears from the trees, clutching her skirts, addressing her as Mama with a vile villain on his heels, it incites every instinct in her to protect. Her priority is to get him where he belongs. Having married off his youngest sister, the Duke of Ryleigh can finally begin the task of locating a suitable bride of his own. But his well-ordered plans are thrown into chaos by note from his sister informing him she no longer wishes to be a countess (as if she has a choice) and has vacated to the family's seat in Dorchester. On Ryleigh's way south, he encounters a carriage with a broken wheel carrying Lady Rebecca, his sister's long ago schoolmate—the one responsible for turning his genteel and compliant sister into a hoyden he hadn't recognized when he took her out of school seven years before. Ryleigh's sense of honor will not allow him to look the other way as he and Rebecca are bound for the same destination. She is just as he remembers—unwieldy and uncaring of what anyone thinks—and now? Unmarried with bastard children. Certainly not duchess material.