Digging for the truth requires a person to dirty their hands, but it might also set them free. Graham Islington—Viscount Aldren—is no stranger to life's foibles. After being given his title from the Regent for heroic services to the Crown during the war, he's used his retirement from the military as an excuse to find scandal and sin in the beau monde. But when a rare bejeweled parasol handle once belonging to Louis XVI is discovered in his bed—along with the dead body of a courtesan—he regrets his careless lifestyle. Lady Caroline Marlowe—sister to the duke of Lockwood—just turned nine and twenty. She suffers from boredom and is sick to death of London, as well as her brother's rules, and needs excitement to relieve ennui. Everything changes when the man she's harbored a secret tendre for shows up at her house in the middle of an autumn night trailing gossip, bloodied hands, and quite possibly murder. He demands her brother's assistance, but with the duke busy with his new life, the responsibility lies with her. As the two are thrown into a sticky web of revenge, forced proximity leads to forbidden desire between the viscount and Caroline. With reputations at stake, society matrons cutting them to ribbons with gossip, and trouble nipping at their heels, they will need to prove their mettle, especially when the madman grows desperate enough to put Graham's life into jeopardy. If she wants a romance for the ages, Caroline will have to ignore familial expectations as well as her own doubts and risk everything for that chance… providing they both survive.