Emily Weatherly was no gently-bred London debutante. In fact, she had thrived on the streets of London, a pickpocket and urchin, until Fate threw her lot in with the Weatherly's, a prestigious family who unselfishly raised her as their own and protect her from a heinous secret that could destroy her life. Despite this, she is never truly accepted as a proper lady, always scorned and ridiculed, and she vows to do her adopted family proud by making a respectable match with a gentleman of some rank and notoriety. Sebastian Weatherly harbors a secret that could thwart his carefully constructed bachelorhood. Indiscriminate rake, scoundrel and downright rogue, he has had to endure Emily Weatherly's presence for as long as he could remember. Now that she intends to make a respectable match, which he knows cannot ever be him as he is not respectable, he can hardly ignore the bitter jealousy residing in his heart as he is forced to watch Emily courted by various beaus.

One must see beyond the title. The Duke of Devonshire, the most powerful duke in England, tires of female debutantes' and their gabster mothers' pretenses and Spanish coins just to win the station of duchess next to him. But one queer day in Northamptonshire, he meets the strangest of women by the name of Esther. Who is she? And is she everything she appears to be? Find out as the duke unravel the pages of this woman's closed book of wounds, laughter, and love. Disclaimer: The pictures in this fiction are photo manipulated. The original ones belong to their respective owners.