In the five years since Lady Mariah Beecham, the widowed Countess of Carlisle, lost her husband, rumors have proliferated throughout society about how she’s used her great beauty to take on a string of lovers. Believing those rumors, Darian Hunter, the Duke of Wolfingham, approached Mariah to ask her to leave his younger brother alone. The rumors are, however, baseless—Lady Mariah has never truly been loved by any man. Unable to endure his rebuke, she attempts to push him aside, but just then, the duke faints in her arms!