A marriage of necessity…with a man who shuns her.
Despite being a duke’s sister, Olivia Whitcombe is shunned by Society due to one insurmountable flaw: her illegitimacy. Taunted by debutantes and rejected by suitors, her debut Season couldn’t get any worse—until she’s caught in a compromising position with a taciturn stranger.
To save the Whitcombe name, Olivia yields to her brother’s demands and finds herself transported to a neglected manor and forced to marry a silent, brooding earl with pain and anger in his eyes, who shuns her at every turn.
Charles Devereaux hasn’t spoken a word since witnessing his mother’s violent death as a child. On inheriting the earldom and a mountain of debts, he returns to Penham Park, his hated childhood home, and reluctantly enters the Marriage Mart. When a debutante of doubtful birth falls—literally—into his arms, Charles curses himself for being snared so easily.