Surely no one had so little in common with Miranda Troy as did Charles Hastings, despite their mothers' maddening insistence that they should wed. Miranda adored landscape gardening on her family's quiet country estate, while the only gardening that interested Mr. Hastings was sowing wild oats!

John Law was an outstanding figure set to go far. Yet when he killed ‘Beau Wilson’ in a duel, it seemed that his career was to be cut short in its prime. Dissatisfied with his fate, Law contrived an escape from Newgate to avoid his death sentence; instead fleeing to France where he turned his banking skills to the gambling tables...