Eager to outshine her older sisters, Henrietta Maybury is disappointed to discover the first man to make her heart race is the scion of a banking family, and therefore quite ineligible as a husband to a viscount’s daughter. But as it turns out, Captain Sydney Cromarty is even less marriageable than she first imagined. For beneath his respectable facade, he’s a notorious smuggler – as Henrietta discovers during a reckless evening at the Hart Inn. And the more she learns, the more he fascinates her.

There can only be one reason for the proud duke of Alvan’s proposed visit to Audley Park. He means to offer himself for Lord Overton’s beautiful daughter Thomasina, thus saving the family’s waning fortune. In the midst of the hectic preparations for his arrival, Overton’s least marriageable daughter Charlotte remembers to collect her younger brothers from school for the holidays.

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.

Major Lord Felix Knight has always known he was destined for the army and is fiercely loyal to the Crown. Thriving on adventure and danger, there is no room in his life for the love and relationships which have cast their spells over his brothers. After healing from his time as a prisoner of war, he returns to the Peninsula to continue the fight against Napoleon. Despite Felix's vows to the contrary, a beautiful lady causes him to lower his guard and soon he finds himself torn between love for country and woman.

Nothing will keep Louisa from her great-aunt's fortune. Except perhaps a phantom who turns out to be a most eligible bachelor. Although Louisa Banner insists she is not the least bit superstitious, she cannot help her misgivings when her family announces she must spend October with her great aunt in a rundown Welsh castle riddled with tales of ghosts. The family hopes Louisa will endear herself to her aunt enough to win a grand inheritance. Louisa’s only wish is to avoid a run-in with any of the phantoms spoken of by the local villagers.