The abducted bride; the upright earl. The only place they match is over the chess board.
Lady Osbourne's famed matchmaking skills may not be enough to find a match for Miss Amaryllis Fernhill, who was abducted right out of the church in front of her groom and has been no one knows where for six years.
Nathan Belvoir, Earl of Hythe, wants a countess that will live up to his illustrious name and embellish his diplomatic and political career. Miss Fernhill is obviously unsuitable. Why, then, can he not look away?
The Boast—pride goeth before the fall…
After facilitating the match of the season, Lady Pandora “Pansy” Osbourne, has boasted that she is the best matchmaker The Ton has ever seen. Always willing to bring her cousin down a peg or two, her cousin, Lady Octavia Sewell insists that was no feat of matchmaking at all, as the couple involved were clearly destined for one another despite Pansy’s meddling. A bitter argument ensues and a dreadful challenge is issued. Pansy must do more than say it… she must prove it.
The terms of the wager are set!
Pansy must produce no less than one match per month between people who have been notoriously unmarriageable—spinsters, bluestockings, rakes and fortune hunters, oh my! But there’s more riding on this than simply her pride! If Pansy loses, she will have to give up her most prized possession—a tiara that belonged to their grandmother will be forfeited into Octavia’s grasping hands.
The Ends Justify the Means… or do they?
Desperate to make these matches, prove her claims of matchmaking prowess to be true and make Octavia eat crow in a very public fashion, Pansy resorts to the greatest weapon in any matchmaker’s arsenal—the house party. Not just one, but a series of them. For two weeks out of every month, she will open her home to an assortment of victims…er, guests. At the end of each party, one couple will emerge either betrothed or wed, by fair means or foul.
