Impressionable and headstrong Ysella Carlyon, younger sister of Kit Carlyon, Viscount Ormonde, makes her long-awaited debut in London Society and is swept off her feet by the dashingly handsome Captain Oliver Featherstone. Who wouldn't be? But both her mother and brother suspect he is a philandering adventurer in search of an heiress, and they disapprove of the liaison.
Part way through the Season, news comes that Kit's wife has been taken ill, and Ysella has to return with her mother to Ormonde Abbey in Wiltshire. But she's determined not to abandon Oliver, and invites him to visit her there. Together, they hatch a plan to thwart her family's disapproval and elope to Gretna Green. To Ysella, it's just a big adventure to enjoy, but she's soon to discover the realities of what she's committed herself to, and it's not nearly so much fun as she thought it would be.
At Ormonde, Kit's land agent and childhood friend, the stalwart and faithful Sam Beauchamp, has long been nurturing a love for Ysella that he believes will always go unrequited. Until he and Kit have to set off in pursuit of the eloping lovers, and something Sam has always dreamed might happen might come true.
But is it what either of them truly want? And can Ysella come to love Sam in the way he longs for her to do?
The Cornish Ladies Series
Book 1 - The Cornish Mermaid
Book 2 - The Cornish Bride
Book 3 - The Cornish Inheritance
Book 4 - The Cornish Widow