When Lady Anne Sinclair vowed to marry anyone as long as it meant she married before her spoilt beauty of a sister, she had no idea the 'anyone' would be the Marquess of Torrance. Long the darling of the ton - and considered quite the confirmed bachelor - he succumbed to Annie's charms and, most magically, made her his wife.

But Annie's lifelong battle for attention had ill-prepared her for married life. In a tipsy revery on her wedding night, she blurted out her real reason for marrying the Marquess - and her husband's formidable pride shut the door on any further communication.

Only a crisis of major proportions could bring the headstrong newlyweds together. And no less than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with sinister political ambitions known only to himself, embroiled Annie in a dangerous plot that taught her the truth about her wifely sentiments.