The demure but beautiful Alecia Stambrook sorely misses her late mother, Lady Sophie. And now that her uncle, the Earl of Langhaven, has also died, there will be no more of the generous stipend that Alecia's father had relied on to survive as the books that he writes bring in very little money..

When her much-loved cousin Charis arrives unexpectedly at her home, Alecia is heartened although taken aback by her strange request.

Charis asks her to pretend to be her, as they look very much alike, and visit the Guardian she has never met at the English Garrison in Cambrai in France, while she marries the love of her life secretly in London..

The Guardian, General Lord Kiniston, sound old and ill-tempered, but, when Charis offers her five hundred pounds, which is enough to keep her and her father for some years, Alecia nervously agrees to go ahead with the pretence.

Arriving in Cambrai, Alecia is amazed to find not only that the imperious and frightening Lord Kiniston is not old at all, but the youngest General in the Army and extremely good-looking!

And then she is horrified that he expects her, as Charis, to marry him against her will!

But then, when she foils a murderous bomb plot, saving the lives of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Kiniston and many more, everything changes and love casts out fear forever.