Sinclair Wortham, Lord Mayville is a man haunted by the sins of his family and by the rejection of the woman he once loved. Seeking solace from his loneliness and an escape from the secrets hidden within the crumbling walls of his family home, he heads to the local tavern for some company and truly atrocious brandy. But Sinclair makes a terrible mistake. After a brief foray outside, his drunken wandering does not lead him back to the inn and the very willing serving girl who awaits him there. It leads him, instead, to the vicarage next door...and to the vicar's plain daughter, Althea Parker.

Althea is used to being forgotten. She is used to being ignored. She is also very much used to loving Lord Mayville from afar while being utterly certain he has never glanced her way. But when he drunkenly stumbles into her bedchamber one night, she's stunned. So stunned that she screams down the rafters, bringing her father and patrons from the nearby tavern running.

Now they are trapped, forced to marry and forced to make the best of a situation that neither of them wanted—at least not in that way. But there is one universal truth.... We rarely get what we want in life, but fate has a way of giving us what we need.