There are worse things than being spectacularly jilted. Losing a leg, for instance, or getting shot - well, perhaps not: the bullet Alistair took fighting in the peninsula never landed him in London’s scandal sheets.

Captain Alistair Beaumaris never dreamed he’d be tossed over by Lord Fairchild’s bastard daughter, losing both her and her fortune - a singular humiliation that should have taught him a lesson. But when your luck is out, you do foolish things, like quarrel with your oldest friend. Or mistake a perfectly respectable widow for a lady of easy virtue.

Unfortunately, that kind of blunder needs fixing. Yielding to his troublesome conscience, Alistair tracks down the elusive widow … but the only thing he doesn’t find is an easy way out.