Jane Prescott arrives at Moorfield Manor as a governess with neither family nor fortune, hired for quiet work and for Charlotte, a little girl who has not spoken since the day she was orphaned.
Jane sees the silence for what it is: grief large enough to shut out anyone who would try to force their way in.
Robert Moorfield, the viscount the county still brands a rake and a wastrel, never wanted the guardianship now on his shoulders, while his cousin Edmund waits with lawyers for a scandal that can seize both the child and her fortune.
All Edmund requires is Robert’s reputation, a hired woman no one knows, and one whispered story a judge will believe.
A wedding printed in the Gazette before quarter-day would turn Robert into a settled married man of rank, so he offers Jane a bargain without love, meant only to keep Charlotte from being taken; neither of them is ready for how that arrangement begins to feel like a family.
