Twelve-year-old Deborah is married off at midnight to sixteen-year-old Julian, the handsome but volatile heir to the Roxton Dukedom, who then disappears from her life. Nine years later, Julian returns incognito to consummate his marriage before Deborah is seduced into bigamous wedlock with his nemesis half-brother. When Deb rescues and falls in love with the wounded duelist Julian Hesham, she does not suspect the stranger with the emerald green eyes to be the Marquis of Alston and her husband. After the honeymoon Deb discovers the appalling truth and that the Marquis of Alston is wanted by French authorities for seducing the innocent daughter of a Farmer-General. Can the handsome stranger with whom Deb spent ten wonderful weeks truly be one and the same as the nobleman Polite Society has branded a rakehell? Will Deborah forgive Julian's cruel deception? Can their marriage survive beyond seduction?
