What would save Jenny Longtree from marrying a man older than her father who spit as he spoke, had bad breath, and whose four male children were unruly and hated the thought of their father marrying again?

 But no amount of begging would dissuade her father from insisting Jenny must marry to save her family from the destitution they were headed to due to his reckless investment of the family income in sinking ships.

 And then came the letter from Jenny’s uncle, her mother’s brother, Sir Roger Addington, with his invitation to a London social season for Jenny sponsored by him. Having been knighted recently for his work during the war, her uncle offered Jenny the salvation she thought would never come.

 Nearing midnight at a ball at Almack’s, Jenny was approached by one of the most eligible bachelors in the ton and given permission by one of the Almack’s Patronesses to dance the waltz. Jenny was half-aware that he had been drinking although the Almack’s Patroness who had introduced him appeared not to have noticed as she gave Jenny permission to dance the Waltz.

 Jenny was enthralled by the handsome young man, as he was with her, and could not have predicted in a million years that she would end up in the scandal of the season when she took the hand he offered and they began to dance the waltz.