When Miss Mary Poole travels from Kent to distant Cumberland to serve as companion to the elderly Countess of Roxborough, she believes the lady needs her. Mary quickly learns otherwise, discovering no one in the great house, not even the servants, wants her presence there. Cut off from her family, she has no one to rely on.

The second son of a second son, Edward Fitzwilliam made his own way in the world. Now returning from India to assume his duties as the new Earl of Roxborough, Edward finds his native country cold, his relations unbearable, and his ancestral home a filthy wreck. But then, on a hot summer day, he encounters his aunt's companion.

Adelaide Becket writes less risqué fiction under another name, but occasionally, she likes to take a walk on the steamy side.