Penelope Rothschild, daughter of the Earl of Donley, had lived her eighteen years in peaceful luxury. But suddenly the cozy calm to which she'd been accustomed turned into devastating turmoil. Her aristocratic father faced ruin after a night of folly at the gaming tables; a ruthless baron demanded Penelope as his bride in return for saving her family from disgrace; and perhaps most unsettling of all, her brother Charles had brought home a friend from America—Marcus Manners, a commoner whose looks and laugh and sheer manliness were anything but common. Improper, impossible as it was, Penny couldn't keep herself from falling in love with this man, yet she could hardly hope that her feelings would be rewarded. Perhaps she never would have learned the secret in Marcus' heart—and in his past—had he not held the cards in the life-and-death game that could restore the Rothschild fortune and the smile in Penny's heart.