Vivi, the Duchess of Bradford, loved her husband from the day they first met. She was an unabashed hoyden. He was the heir to a dukedom and her older brother’s best friend. She vowed to marry him, but she never could have imagined just how dreadfully that youthful promise would go awry, shattering her hope for a future.

For too long Miss Emily Parr has been subject to the whims of her indebted uncle and the lecherous advances of his repulsive business partner. Her plan to be done with dominating men forever is simple: find herself a kind husband who will leave her to her books.It seems an easy enough plan, until she is unexpectedly abducted by an incorrigible duke who hides a wounded spirit behind flashing green eyes.

Ewan Cameron has no intention of falling in love with the delectable, bookish Lily Farthingale. He is the estranged grandson of the duke of Lotheil and has come to London because of a deathbed promise to his father. He has no intention of staying beyond his three-month obligation. Nothing can tempt him to remain, not even Lily, the beautiful bluestocking determined not only to restore relations between him and his grandfather, but to turn Ewan into a proper gentleman. 

Jonas Parker, the Earl of Harrington has no desire to marry. He rather enjoys being unencumbered. Lady Marian Lindsay rather likes being a spinster and embraces her bluestocking ways. She's studying to be a physician and wants to be a proper doctor. After careful deliberation she devises a scheme but she needs help. Harrington is appalled at Marian’s request but she somehow manages to charm him into saying yes. Before he realizes it, he’s escorting her to Kent and a house party. Propriety must be met at all costs because he will not be wed at the end of her expedition - or will he? 

Welcome to Book One in "The Hellion Club", the nickname for the Darrow School, where miscreant noblemen send their illegitimate daughters to keep them out of sight, out of mind, and to make them employable.