HERE IS THE sprawling, sensuous

tale of a spirited young country

lass who defies convention and

confounds London society in determined

pursuit of the one man who has won her

heart.

Lucy Emmett is anything but a lady of

the Quality. Born of an industrious

tenant farmer and a wayfaring gypsy and

brought up as free as the lusty manner in

which she was born. Lucy is a beautiful

firebrand eagerly pursued by all the men

in the county. To protect his daughter s

imperiled virtue. Lucy s father arranges a

hasty marriage to the local blacksmith.

but the resourceful Lucy catches the eye

of the foppish Peter Royalston and is

whisked away to become schooled in the

courtly arts and used as a pawn in the

fop s own social climbing schemes.

But when Lucy is swept off her feet by

the handsome and illustrious Heir to the

Earldom of Landsdun. she willingly

surrenders to the man she knows is her

match in spirit and her maker in society

Through her beloved Charles, Lucy will

at last have the opportunity to realize

herself as the elegant, gracious, and

intelligent woman of stature she is. Yet

the stumbling blocks are many. With

both her own humble birth and the Heir s

engagement to another threatening her

newly envisioned happiness, Lucy de-

vises a bold and reckless scheme to win

her loved one as her own and to achieve

recognition for the lady of quality she has

always been.