Hope Fielding is a lady's maid. When her employer's nephew proposes marriage, she thinks her dreams have come true, only for them to turn to nightmares on her wedding night. Running from her depraved groom and his vicious valet, she accepts help from Harry Richards. Harry has a jaded view of women. As far as he's concerned, they don't deserve a man's consideration. Yet he finds himself helping the woman who rescued him from attack in the London fog, and sees her as that rarest of creatures-an honest female. But will he still think so when he learns her secrets? And will he be willing to stand up to her husband to protect her?