For seven long years, Lady Cassandra Monroe has waited for the man of her dreams to return from the war. Unfortunately, he happens to be engaged to her flighty cousin. When he mistakes Cass for Patience Bunbury, a fictitious friend her cousin has invented to escape social obligations-even with her future husband-Cass thinks this is her chance. After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, Captain Julian Swift is not quite ready to settle down and enter into his unwanted arranged marriage. Patience Bunbury is witty, independent, passionate, and, unbeknownst to him, the cousin of his current fiancee. When the truth about Cass comes out, will he surrender his heart to a woman who really is too good to be true?