Spirited young Lucia Mannering willingly let herself be offered as a prize in a shocking wager between her odious stepfather, Jasper Franklyn, and Hugo, Marquis of Mandersely. For this was her only hope of escape from a household where humiliation was her daily lot and degradation seemed her certain future. - It was only when the bet was settled and she found herself looking into Hugo's ironic, devilishly handsome face, that Lucia fully realized what she had done. She knew that this nobleman's reputation for cynical wit and scandalous living was the talk of all Regency London. And now she was his, to do with what he liked. Lucia's daring gamble had begun--and she trembled to think how it might end.