Lady Portia Ellerslie is the widow of a famous war hero, a confidante of Queen Victoria, and a woman with vast responsibilities because of her husband's memory.
She is also a woman of 28 with her own needs now that her elderly husband has died. When she decides to spend a night with a man, she doesn't realize what difficulties will arise.
Marcus Worthorne was Portia's childhood infatuation. He's grown into a feckless rake, but when Portia chooses him for her night of passion she begins to uncover a slightly different Marcus, one who is learning to fight for what he wants. But the barriers between them are enormous
- Marcus is a nobody, and Portia someone whom the British nation loves because of her dead husband. Is there any way they can be together?
This pleasant-enough read significantly focuses on the love affair but also a small assassination plot on the side. Portia
is well-portrayed as a Victorian-seeming woman whose emotions are mostly kept in check and who considers her sense of duty important. Marcus
is sometimes a little difficult to like; he does seem feckless and self-indulgent. The villains of the book
are somewhat pantomime-evil in their portrayal, but overall it is a good read.