Locked away by her reclusive and intensely protective father, the recently deceased 'Mad Lord of Northumberland,' Melissa is beautiful and educated but painfully naïve about the real world—and the dark secrets of her birth. Now in the care of her uncle, the Earl of Braddock, she must prepare to enter London society and find a proper husband, a task that grows complicated when she falls for the one man she can never have. Just as a promising new life begins to eclipse her tragic past, she'll find herself consumed by a forbidden love that could destroy it all . . .