Leighton Stone, Earl of Longbridge, is used to danger. His years as a code breaker in Wellington's army have been filled with it. All he wants, at the end of the Peninsular War, is to return to his estate and marry his childhood sweetheart, Maddie Westlake. Maddie, not a typical parson's daughter, is tired of outwitting her parsimonious father to take care of Leighton's tenants and tired of being taken for granted. When her father sends her away, Leighton tracks her to Bath and discovers he must woo Maddie to win her love. Conniving relatives try to keep them apart, but music and memories pull this pair together as they are drawn into a bizarre spy plot only Maddie can solve.

Grace Montrose and Brandon White, Earl of Morewood, have much in common: loneliness, love for the theater, and low expectations of the opposite sex. Independently wealthy, with a spinster cousin for a companion, Grace has no intention of letting any man dominate her. But she would not mind the handsome earl as an intellectual friend and occasional dinner companion. It has nothing to do with the broad cut of his shoulders, his incisive blue eyes, or the dark blond locks of his hair that stray to his brow... Brandon is intrigued by his strong physical attraction to a woman of twenty-seven, clearly on the shelf. She possesses not only a fine mind but the loveliest hazel eyes he has ever seen and a shimmering fall of russet hair...