New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh returns to the seductive world she knows so wellRegency Englandin a new novel filled with her trademark wit, sensuality, and breathtaking storytelling. With this, the first in a dazzling new quartet of novels, Balogh invites us into a special worlda select academy for young ladiesa world of innocence and temptation. Drawing us into the lives of four women, teachers at Miss Martins School for Girls, Balogh introduces this novels marvelous heroine: music teacher Frances Allardand the man who seduces her with a passion no woman could possibly forget. They meet in a ferocious snowstorm. She is a young teacher with a secret past. He is the cool, black-caped stranger who unexpectedly comes to her rescue. Between these two unlikely strangers, desire is instantaneousand utterly impossible to resist. Stranded together in a rustic country inn, Lucius Marshall, who is the Viscount Sinclair, and Frances Allard share a night of glorious, unforgettable passion. But Frances knows her placeand it is far from the privileged world of the sensual aristocrat. Due to begin her teaching position at Miss Martins School in Bath, Frances must try to forget that one extraordinary nightand the man who touched her with such exquisite tenderness and abandon. But Frances cannot hide forever. And when fate once again throws them together, Lucius refuses to take no for an answer. If Frances will not be his wife, he will make her his mistress. So begins an odyssey fraught with intrigue, one that defies propriety and shocks the straitlaced ton. For Luciuss passionate, single-minded pursuit is about to force Frances to give up all her secretsexcept oneto win the heart of the man she already loves. Once again this incomparable storyteller captures a time and a place like no other. And in Lucius and Frances, Mary Balogh gives us her most unlikely lovers yeta nobleman in search of the perfect wife and an unconventional woman willing to risk everything for an unforgettable love.