A down-and-out second son.

An heiress who refuses to marry.

A father at his wits' end.

Mab Dubarry is adamant about her opinion on the merits of marriage – that there are no merits to be had. She is quite happy as a spinster, thank you very much. But following the sudden death of her uncle – heir to her father's estate and would-have-been custodian of his spinster niece – her father is more determined than ever to see his only child married. He would die a happy man knowing that his beloved Mab's future is secure …

And desperate men make desperate decisions.

When Mab finds out her father has accepted the proposal of the despicable Mr Alabaster, her uncle's new business partner, Mab must take matters into her own hands to stop the marriage from going ahead. With her reputation potentially in tatters, her father issues her the most ludicrous threat: she's to be sent to Aunt áine's to find a husband!

But Aunt áine does not exist. She's a fable, a story told to little girls to make them behave … is she not?

William Blackwater, the down-and-out second son of a viscount, is in dire need of money. His modest estate is crumbling around him, and he soon won't have even enough coppers to pay his two faithful servants, let alone save his estate. He never wanted to marry; he is an uneducated, barely literate bastard, and it would be a cruelty to shackle a woman to him. So, he is in complete and utter shock when one day a carriage pulls up to his door claiming he's earned himself a place at the fabled Aunt áine's. But hope isn't the only thing to follow him to the elusive Gaol Manor. When a murder plot surfaces, William may just lose his only chance with the woman who's been plaguing his dreams for the past fifteen years.