In the game of hearts, love knows no social boundaries. Eleven years after she was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Kent, Henrietta Katherine Graham, the daughter of the stablemaster for the Marquess of Ravenwood, returns to Garring Manor, older, wiser, and more beautiful than ever. Harboring an attachment for the second son, she looks forward to a sweet reunion and is thrilled when her beau resumes their relationship, without hesitation, and proposes marriage, but her father opposes the match, due to what he refers to as her low birth. Will Henrietta defy her father and societal dictates to follow her heart? Lord Ernest Cornelius Frederick Howe values society’s good opinion, but he is shunned after a failed attempt to seize the marquessate in his brother’s absence. When he retires to the family estate, he is shocked to find his childhood sweetheart in residence, and nothing can stop him from renewing their acquaintance. Determined to win his ladylove, he devises a scheme to redefine Henrietta as something she is not, to protect his future wife and satisfy the whims of the ton, but he risks losing his bride, in the process. Will Ernest flout society to claim the woman he loves?