Fashionable London holds nothing for wealthy merchant's niece, Lalamani Finchurch. Except perhaps for an earl with a twisted hand and a charming smile. Why is it that, for all the fortune hunters she has fended off since returning from India, the one man who seems to like her is so against marrying for money? Philip has inherited an impoverished earldom, but he still has his work as an engineer to fall back on. He doesn’t have to sell himself to the highest bidder, and isn’t even tempted by the women he meets in Society, until a tiny woman with beautiful eyes and a fine mind dances with him on his last night in London. When they meet again in a small country village, they join forces to uncover larceny and deceit, to rescue Lalamani's aunt from poverty, and to discover that pride is a poor reason to refuse a love for a lifetime.