Lucien de Vaux, the Marquess of Arden and Beth Armitage are so fundamenally different yet so closely linked through an accident of birth that you just know they are going to have mountains to climb before reaching a somewhat volatile truce. Beth Armitage is a fabulous heroine for, although one might think her a 20th century girl in Regency dress, she does accurately represent the philosophy of Mary Wollstonecroft and her followers. Arden is an archetypal Regency buck yet has throughout his life sustained a love of the most erudite of learning and he has a very powerful intellect which, when he meets Beth is challenged as never before. Arden's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Belcraven are unlike any parents in a Regency novel that I can recall! They, too, are flawed people but they rise above it magnificently.