Most English girls meet their heart's desire across a crowded ballroom or in a genteel parlor. Letitia Olive Hornsby finds hers when she knocks him into a river. A curly-haired, blue-eyed hellion of only eleven, she decides even then that Richard, the dashing, handsome, and totally disreputable son of the Earl of Downe, is the white knight of her dreams.
Now fully grown and unexpectedly beautiful, Letty is spinning a plan to save Richard from himself by marrying him, of course. And he soon has the bruises to prove it. The insufferable, albeit unforgettable, chit has come back into Richard's life with a crash literally falling into his arms. He is struck by her softness, her dizzying scent, and her impossible meddling in his ruinous drinking, gambling, and amorous liaisons. But when fate makes them prisoners of a ring of dangerous smugglers, Richard discovers in his mischievous cellmate a pure, romantic, questing spirit that sparks a flame in his own shadowed heart. If only they can escape, a wondrous passion can blaze free and they can find a lifetime's adventures in each other's arms.