Lovely young Adriana Blackburn is grateful that her marriage to the Marquess of Chalford has taken her away from her drunken father and pinchpenny brother, but it has also taken her away from the social whirl she enjoys in Brighton and London. Although Joshua is kind and tender toward his bride, Adriana begins to believe that he wants her only as a mistress for his half-crumbling Thunderhill Castle in Kent— not as mistress of his heart. But how can she know what Joshua truly feels when nothing seems to disturb his unruffled calm? And what will the enigmatic man do when she courts scandal by defying his wish that she stay close to home?