All London is abuzz with the news: the beautiful but willful Lady Vanessa Wolfe refuses to wed! With her father, the Marquess Wulfric, recently deceased and her brother missing in battle, she is sole heir to the Wulfric fortune and a great country estate. She is a catch--and no one can catch her. Refusing to be leg-shackled to any of the fawning fortune hunters who have offered for her, the high-spirited lady has vowed that she will say nay to them all.

To wealthy Lord Brickendon--the most bored gentleman in the ton--Vanessa is the perfect antidote to his ennui. He has wagered against two other suitors that he will be the first to win her hand. But he reckons without the turnabout of fate, the unpredictability of the heart...and the certain disaster he is courting be deceiving a certain lady into falling in love.