When her parents and twin brother die within weeks of each other, Alicia and her younger sister are left in the hands of an uncle who has brought them all to financial and social ruin. Desperate to save her family from debtor’s prison, Alicia vows to marry the first wealthy man to propose. She meets the dashing Lord Amesbury, and her heart whispers that this is the man she is destined to love. However, his tainted past may forever stand in their way. Her choices of potential husbands narrow to either a scarred cripple with the heart of a poet or a handsome rake with a deadly secret.

Cole Amesbury is tormented by his own ghosts and believes he is beyond redemption. Yet, he cannot deny his attraction to the girl whose genuine goodness touches the heart he’d long thought was dead. He fears the scars in his soul cut so deeply that he may never be able to offer Alicia a love that is true. When another bizarre mishap threatens her life, Cole suspects that the seemingly unrelated accidents are actually a killer’s attempt to exterminate every member of Alicia’s family.

Despite the threat looming over her, learning to love the stranger she married may pose the greatest danger to her heart. And Cole must protect Alicia from the killer before he strikes again.