Lady Annette Page is twenty-four and ready to climb onto the shelf. Her first Season was a disaster after a duke’s son pinched her by the punchbowl, and she walloped him in the nose. And broke it. After three years, she has yet to live down the scandal. Her father hopes to remarry, but his betrothed will not agree until Lady Annette is gone. With an enormous dowry offered for her hand, the earl hosts a house party at Christmastide. The men arrive, hoping to claim her fortune, while the ladies continue to dredge up the past.

Lord Wilkinson has been a widow for twenty years. Now that his daughter is betrothed, he is ready to consider taking another wife. Invited to a house party by an old friend, he arrives to find the earl’s daughter is the guest of honor, and the week of revelry is a ploy to marry her off. Wilkinson is surprised the other gentlemen view her as a quiet, awkward female. The viscount, seeing a striking, intelligent woman with a dry wit only he seems to appreciate, comes to her rescue.

When the two become allies, their partnership soon goes beyond friendship. But will Lady Annette’s age and the viscount’s interfering daughter keep them from a happy ending under the mistletoe?