Lady Catherine Davencourt is heartbroken when her fiance is murdered, so she is doubly horrified when the disreputable Dominic, the new Marquis of Clare, offers to marry his brother's bereaved fiancee.

Her only escape lies in disguising herself as a governess and fleeing to a position with a Russian family. But on arrival in St Petersburg, she finds that Dominic too has fled England . . .

Why is she fated to be thrown into his company? Could she possibly be in love with him-a man she had left England rather than marry, a man who had left England rather than marry her?