Cristobel Brooke’s father, jeweller to the rich and famous, is brutally murdered. Crista flees to her uncle, who resides in a small village close to Winchester, determined not to be pulled into the criminal activities that ended her father’s life. But the villains have discovered she makes jewellery just as well as her father did, and pursue her, forcing her to fall in with them.

Lord Amos Sheridan, brother to the Duke of Winchester, is intrigued by Crista’s unusual personality but becomes frustrated when she refuses to trust him with her secrets. Suspecting she has involved herself in something she is unable to control, Amos is astounded when she becomes implicated in treasonous acts and delves deeper, determined to vindicate her.

With the duke’s backing, they launch a daring scheme to expose villains prepared to resort to murder and blackmail in order to line their own pockets. Crista, determined never to marry, finds herself falling a little more in love with Amos each time she meets him. But he is a duke’s heir and she is a nobody with a criminal past that would visit disgrace upon his family. There can be no future for them, can there…